The Senator flies to Luisiana and prepares for a duel
Francesco Semprini
NEW YORK
While America awaits the departing steps of Hillary Clinton to clear the playing field for Barack Obama, John McCain makes haste to the Southern States. The Republican senator spent the last night of the primaries in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, close to his wife Cindy, his daughter Meghan, a successful blogger with a passion for Italian fashion, and Piyush “Bobbu” Jindal, the governor of the State and potential Vice President.
Jindal is the young promise of the “Grand Old Party” (the Republican Party): an ambitious republican of Indian origin, known for being an ultra-conservative, for being anti-abortion, an enemy of evolutionism, as well as for his zealous Catholicism to which he was converted as a young boy. Pinned by Obama as a rightist, he has become, at only 36 years of age, the most junior of US senators and a perfect compliment to McCain, or, in even plainer terms, the key to the electoral vote to which the Arizona senator’s eyes are ever fixed.
In this sense, the choice of Luisiana for the last night of the primaries seems far from incidental, also because amid hot-dogs and exit-polls and with November 4 around the corner, the two allies are fully immersed in a brainstorming session of tactics and strategies. The synchronicity is utterly perfect: with Obama only within inches of a nomination, it is necessary to incite confusion among the adversaries, for the rival to work at the flanks of the enemy to capture any wavering votes. McCain’s task will be, on one hand, to prove that his adversary has too little experience to be President and this entails conveying clearly and in no uncertain terms his weak points in terms of foreign policy and military expertise. On the other hand, he will also have to force Obama within the confines of the far-left box, explains Larry Sabato, political analyst and director of the Center for Politics. This is why he left his attack accusing Obama of asserting that more time was need in Iraq and then to persist in pushing for the withdrawal of troops, not to mention his having voting against the resolution for reinforcements put forth by David Petraeus: “If that isn’t inexperience…”, affirmed the Republican.
The democratic senator runs for cover but not in time to announce the next trip to the Golf which will deliver yet another broadside from the right shore of the Potomac. “It is difficult to imagine what could be gained from a meeting with Ahmedinejad, apart from intermittent anti-Semitic jabs”, McCain lashed out. Within sight is an opening into negotiations with a “sponsor of terrorism”, something the black senator has maintained is averse to the inserting of Pasdaran among terrorist cells.
McCain’s ideas are clear: an iron hand against Obama. But what she be used against Clinton? A velvet hand? “Her electoral campaign has been praiseworthy and is deserving of something important”, he says. “To create confusion among adversaries is the second column of this strategy”, explains Sabato. And for the final blow, there is the ace in the hole – tax policy, to be precise. “A president Obama means more taxes, which is a positive formula for the health sector as was the case in the Clinton era”, concludes Sabato, “but in phases of slow economic growth, as we are seeing today, he risks putting the country on its knees.”
While America awaits the departing steps of Hillary Clinton to clear the playing field for Barack Obama, John McCain makes haste to the Southern States. The Republican senator spent the last night of the primaries in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, close to his wife Cindy, his daughter Meghan, a successful blogger with a passion for Italian fashion, and Piyush “Bobbu” Jindal, the governor of the State and potential Vice-President.
Jindal is the young promise of the “Grand Old Party” (the Republican Party): an ambitious republican of Indian origin, known for being ultra-conservative, for being anti-abortion, an enemy of evolutionism, as well as for his zealous Catholicism to which he was converted as a young boy. Pinned by Obama as a rightist, he has become, at only 36 years of age, the most junior of US senators and a perfect compliment to McCain, or, in even plainer terms, the key to the electoral vote to which the Arizona senator’s eyes are ever fixed.
In this sense, the choice of Luisiana for the last night of the primaries seems far from incidental, also because amid hot-dogs and exit-polls and with November 4th around the corner, the two allies are fully immersed in a tactics and strategies brainstorming session. The synchronicity is utterly perfect: with Obama only within inches of a nomination, it is necessary to incite confusion among the adversaries, for the rival to work at the flanks of the enemy to capture any wavering votes. McCain’s task will be, on one hand, to prove that his adversary has too little experience to be President and this entails conveying clearly, and in no uncertain terms, his weak points in terms of foreign policy and military expertise. “On the other hand, he will also have to force Obama within the confines of the far-left box,” explains Larry Sabato, political analyst and director of the Center for Politics. This is why he started his attack on Obama by asserting that more time was need in Iraq before persisting in pushing for the withdrawal of troops, not to mention his having voting against the resolution for reinforcements put forth by David Petraeus: “If that isn’t inexperience…,” affirmed the Republican.
The democratic senator runs for cover, but not in time to announce the next trip to the Golf, which will deliver yet another broadside from the right shore of the Potomac. “It is difficult to imagine what could be gained from a meeting with Ahmedinejad, apart from intermittent anti-Semitic jabs,” McCain lashed out. Within sight is an opening into negotiations with a “sponsor of terrorism,” something the black senator has maintained is averse to the inserting of Pasdaran among terrorist cells.
McCain’s ideas are clear: an iron hand against Obama. But what should be used against Clinton? A velvet hand? “Her electoral campaign has been praiseworthy and is deserving of something important,” he says. “To create confusion among adversaries is the second column of this strategy,” explains Sabato. And for the final blow, there is the ace in the hole-–tax policy, to be precise. “A President Obama means more taxes, which is a positive formula for the health sector as was the case in the Clinton era,” concludes Sabato, “but in phases of slow economic growth, as we are seeing today, he risks putting the country on its knees.”
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