This is the first time I have been in the USA during national elections and its been a big eye-opener. During my life I’ve spent a-lot of time here, so I didn’t expect to learn as much as I did. All genuine Americans can tell me whether I stumbled upon a rather unusual election.
Presidential campaign
I met people with genuine enthusiasm for Obama, which was great to see. People I’ve met here in Minnesota were really exited about him as a candidate, and very involved. No republicans as far as my eyes can see. Perhaps they were hiding behind a tree?
Hopefully the next UK elections in 2010 will get everyone ranting, raving and blogging just as much, but somehow I doubt it.
The only downer was his half hour political documentary. It offended my English sensibilities in so many ways. Fairness – Why does Obama get a half hour slot when Mcain doesn’t? Aloofness – I couldn’t stand the biscuit and gravy stories of real Americans. I want straight policy talk goddamit.
Al vs Norm
Here in Minnesota there was a pretty disgusting senatorial campaign between Al Franken and the incumbent Norm Coleman. Al Franken was, in his pre-political life, a comedian and writer, whose credits include SNL. The main thrust of Norm’s campaign seemed to be making Al out to be an angry, sexist, crazy man. Al on the other hand wanted to make us belive that Norm was a bribe taking crook.
Apparently this was the most expensive senatorial campaign in the country. At $30 million its getting close to an entire UK general election budget. Split that across a population of about 5 million and you get an Idea of how bombarded we were with negative advertisement. Its a relief to be watching “New connectionless light bulb” and “Conquer the neck” infomercials again.
The race isn’t over yet either. Both candidates are stuck at 42% with a recount to take place soon. I can only hope that someone in Washington just forgets about it and neither of them get the job.
“Why does Obama get a half hour slot when Mcain doesn’t?”
Because he paid for it.
What? Another GNOMEr in minnesota? where are you? (sorry if this got posted several times, some openid stuff was failing)
The reason it was fair that Obama got a 30-minute infomercial was because he paid for it. The reason McCain didn’t get one is because he didn’t pay for it. Obama’s fund raising allowed him to do many things never done before in an election. Yeah, the infomercial was pretty much content-less. That’s how things tend to work here in America. We want flash, not substance. I’ve heard remarks from others that they thought it was really good.
Obama gets a half hour on TV because he paid for it with campaign donations, so its perfectly fair, its his choice how he spends his campaign dollars.
Some would cry foul since he broke one of his campaign financing promises, which allowed him to collect as much money as he did, but it isn’t as if he did something unethical by changing how his campaign handled financing.
Others would cry foul because of the way his online site collected donations. It disabled almost all name/address/etc verification for donations under $200 allowing individuals to namelessly donate however much they want (the limit is supposed to be $2300) and also allowed not only non-citizens, but those in other countries to donate (not allowed under current law). Its unlikely given the sheer volume of donations removing the funds obtained illegally would have made much of a difference.
And Minnesota, long time Democratic state, you won’t see many Republicans (or at least people who will admit to such).
I understand that he can do it because he has the money, and I mostly agree with that as a policy. After all, if a lot of people are willing to spend their hard earned cash on a person then its likely he / she’s a candidate that people are exited about. I don’t really like the idea of government funded campaign finance. Some elections people want to spend money on, some they don’t. Donations are a good way of deciding that.
On the other hand there is something to be said for the UK system of limiting TV appearances, and making them fair. At least it stops the politicians boring us to death.
Probably there’s merits to both approaches. Where exactly you draw the line between the individual’s right to spend his own wealth, and society’s need for even handed politics, is a matter of culture and values and unique circumstances. It’s probably also good that each society around the world draws it differently, if for no other reason than it’s nice to be able to compare results.
Our public financing system *isn’t* government funded. They come out of the Presidential Election Campaign Fund which consists of voluntary contributions made by tax payers (there’s a checkbox on the yearly filing forms).