Back to Gideon Rachman
In a column earlier this year, I asked - “Why is the American election such compelling viewing?” My answer was that it is structured like a soap-opera and - “the script-writers know how to keep you watching with some new twist to the plot.”
Well, hat’s off to whoever is writing the latest episodes of “American President”. We now have two “you couldn’t make it up” developments - Hurricane Gustav smashing into New Orleans and the announcement that Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old (Bristol) is pregnant.
The family say that she is going to have the baby and to marry the father. I bet she is. Talk about shot-gun weddings: if Bristol’s boyfriend hesitates for a moment, he will have entire swat-teams marching him to the altar.
I am not enough of an expert on Christian morals to work out how this is likely to play among evangelical voters. I suppose the fact that Bristol is getting married and having the baby is “good”; the pre-marital sex angle is “bad” - particularly if it suggests a lack of parental supervision while Mum was busy running the state. Or maybe it won’t matter at all - and Mrs Palin will attract fundamentalist votes, on the basis of her opposition to abortion and flirtation with creationism?
I must admit that I am skipping the Republican convention. This does not reflect innate liberal bias; nor does it reflect a belief that Obama is bound to win - so there is no point even bothering with the Republicans. No, the reasons for my absence are more prosaic. After a week of satin sheets, I feel the urge to be back in my own bed - sleeping under the usual hessian sacking. More prosaically still, I plan to be away for most of the second half of September - so I thought it might be an idea to put in an appearance at home.
That said, there definitely was far more European interest in Obama than in McCain. My flight back from Denver on Friday night was packed with British journalists and politicians, who had gone to the Democratic convention but were skipping the Republicans. The most extreme example of this was given to me by a Dutch TV journalist - who told me that his network had sent 20 people to Denver, but were dispatching just one to Minneapolis.
Why this euro-bias to Obama? A number of reasons I would guess. First, when people were making travel plans he looked like the certain victor; second, he has much more charisma than McCain (at least, in Europe); and third, most Europeans find the Democrats more congenial. But we’re all going to look a bit silly if McCain wins.
This blog covers a variety of topics from US foreign policy to European politics and the Middle East - and whatever else happens to be in the news or catch my attention. I travel a lot and often post blogs from around the world. Many of my posts are intended to spark discussion or to solicit readers' views. I joined the FT as chief foreign affairs commentator in 2006, after a 15-year career at The Economist which included stints as a correspondent in Brussels, Bangkok and Washington. I write a weekly column on foreign affairs, which appears in the paper on Tuesdays.
