Daily Times

The recent political conventions of the two US political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, formally nominating their presidential contenders, were designed to directly appeal to the American people through the electronic media, which is now the nerve centre of political campaigning. Despite all the razzmatazz of the conventions, the contest remains tight. By choosing Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential candidate, Mitt Romney has sought to consolidate his party’s conservative base as he has lacked their trust with his flexible views in the past over issues such as abortion, healthcare and so on. In other words, he is now locked into Paul Ryan’s economic and political orthodoxy of unfettered capitalism, small government, and maximum role for individual enterprise, which means that there should be tax cuts for the rich to encourage private investment, combined with spending cuts on social entitlement programmes.

It is amazing that despite the global financial crisis brought on by capitalism gone berserk, the Republicans have managed to restore its “efficacy”, considering that Romney has an even chance of becoming the new president. That in itself is a miracle of sorts that shows that Wall Street, the banks and big business have not only washed off their sins, but are promising to do it all over again. And that the Republicans have convinced almost half of the country’s electorate that their narrative is still the right course for a still ailing US.

The Democrats, therefore, are throwing everything into their campaign for Obama’s re-election. The enlisting of Bill Clinton’s help at the recent Democrats convention was a brilliant move for several reasons. First, it showed the Democrats as a united party, considering that Clinton had said some unsavoury things about Obama as a presidential candidate in 2008, when he was pitted against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Second, Clinton is rated as the most popular American politician today, and his testimony of Obama’s political credentials should rub off on the incumbent president. Thirdly, he sought to demolish any slur on Obama’s American identity and patriotism by extolling his passion for the country. Fourth, Clinton extolled Obama’s desire and patience to reach out to his Republican opponents, but it has not worked because “the far right that now controls their party seems to hate our President and a lot of other Democrats.”

On the other hand, Obama’s commitment to reach across the political divide for national good was evident when “He appointed Republican secretaries of defence, the army and transport…Heck, he even appointed Hillary” as the secretary of state after she lost the Democratic nomination. Fifth, he put the best spin on Obama’s economic record by describing him as “a man who stopped the slide into depression and put us on the long road to recovery.” And it was vintage Clinton with his folksy political style. With the election so tight, Clinton’s charisma might eventually be the difference between victory and defeat for Obama, although it was not so visible in the opinion polls after the convention.

The country’s non-performing economy remains Obama’s big problem with nearly 25 million unemployed and under-employed. Among the voter demographics, Obama is not so popular with many white males. Many of them find the world slipping out of their comfort zone with new confused social values of gay marriage, legalised abortion, humane treatment of some of the young Latino immigrants, not to speak of an Afro-American as the country’s president.

And these people and their likes in the country’s Bible belt are the natural constituency of the even more than usually conservative Republican Party under the influence of the Tea Party movement. They have in Paul Ryan as a vice-presidential running mate to Mitt Romney, someone who not only shares their conservative social values but also is the new poster boy of the Republican Party advocating public spending cuts, tax cuts for the rich, reduced government and even lesser regulation of private enterprise. In other words, Republicans want more of the same that has created the present economic mess, and they seem to have managed to confuse many people into believing that Barack Obama’s four years as president have somehow been at the root of all the country’s economic misery.

This narrative of Obama’s economic failure seems believable to many Americas because, having promised high heaven during the 2008 election campaign, the country seems to have hardly moved ahead for millions of Americans caught in the maelstrom of America’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The American election drama is a theatre of the absurd, where real issues are ignored to dwell on shadows. For instance, both the parties are ignoring the plight of America’s about 46 million poor who hardly rate a mention. For Obama, it is all about the middle class. And the Republicans focus on the rich who supposedly will pull the economy out of its morass with their investments encouraged by low taxes and virtually no regulation.

Then there is the God factor, with the Republicans having a special relationship with Him. Mitt Romney pounced on the Democrats for initially leaving God out of their platform that has since been rectified, which led Romney to pronounce, “I will not take God out of…our platform. I will not take God out of my heart. We are a nation that’s bestowed by God.” He knows the importance of keeping on the right side of God in the US, where people strongly believe that God blesses the US, and the Republican Party is the conscience of the country. They are banking on mobilising all these people imbued with special American values to keep out the supposed Obama mob of crazy youth, women who long for abortion, Latinos, Afro-Americans and homosexuals.

A rainbow coalition of such diverse groups might still take Obama across the winning line. According to some polls, he has a small, though not significant, lead over Romney. His biggest problem, though, remains the economy. A close second is the virtual absence this time of committed young volunteers who put so much into his 2008 election campaign. That kind of apathy will affect voters’ mobilisation for Obama’s cause. At the same time, the Republican state governments have been making sure that many of the marginalised groups that usually vote Democrats are unable to cast their votes with new requirements of voter identification.

As if this were not enough, the fury in the Muslim world over a documentary made by some crazy man in the US that defames Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is likely to be politicised in the US presidential election, with Romney already making some noises. How it will all play out will also have a bearing on the Obama-Romney contest. In other words, it is all up in the air.

The writer is a senior journalist and academic based in Sydney, Australia. He can be reached at sushilpseth@yahoo.co.au