America, where personality wins over policy

Politics can be defined as the activities and policies involved in managing a government. The definition does not include the fame or personality traits of the person behind the policies yet continuously in election campaigns we see the public voting for a personality not the policies.

This can be seen in the current American Presidential Campaign with the Sarah Palin action figure, and Barack Obama being called a terrorist sympathiser because he had worked on legitimate community projects with a 1960s activist.

Is any of this relevant to what these politicians plan to do for America and its people if they become president?

Most of the political campaigns in the United States have been focused on character assassination and manipulating the public into refocusing their attention on the personalities of each party, instead of the critical policies. America faces many issues that have no end in sight with the financial crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the numerous health care calamities and global climate change. With their country in such a state of affairs it is especially significant at this time that America people elect a government based on policy not on personality.

The Times wrote today “those giving the thumbs-up [to Sarah Palin] must also believe Americans to be simple suckers for a wink, a dropped “g” on a verb, and the use of the odd folksy phrase. You betcha. Doggone it. She’s a bump on a log. Darn right.”

It appears as though Sarah Palin has managed to dodge every threat of answering a question on policy without an autocue and Americans know this. The media are talking about it; the Democrats are talking about it but her charming pit-bull with lipstick, hocky mum persona wins again.

Although this is so, Palin did lose her battle of dodging the ‘real questions’ when she was faced with a CBS interview. It is clear that personality wins over policy when Sarah Palin remains popular despite her comments to CBS journalist Katie Couric. Palin was asked about the very important bailout package offered by the American Government to save their financial market and her response was this quite concerning. As a CNN reporter said, if the Republicans are voted into government, Sarah Palin is only one step away from becoming president if John McCain at 72 years-old becomes incapable of his presidential duties. Keep this firmly in your mind when you watch Palin’s comments.

Let’s just hope that the American people use some skills in common sense and good judgement and wake up from the nightmare mistaken for a dream that is Sarah Palin. The reality is the true Sarah Palin won’t live up to her action figure. She won’t save the America and the world. She will instead, just like George W. Bush Junior, lie and fumble her way through her position without concern, spending most of her time shooting moose and using Air Force One to take the kids to hockey.

By Natascha Schwartz