The World

John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate is bold. But it is also dumb.

At a stroke, McCain has negated his most powerful argument – that Barack Obama is too inexperienced to be president. Sarah Palin has been governor of Alaska for less than two years. Six years ago, she was the mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Her personal story is interesting and has a certain charm. But I winced as I heard her describe the valuable experience she had gained as a member of a Parent Teachers Association. And this is the person who might end up having to deal with the likes of Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao. And remember, McCain turned 72 today.

Still, the Palin choice was brilliant in one sense. It grabbed the news cycle away from Barack Obama and gave the media less than 24 hours to gush about his speech.

I was in the Invesco stadium last night. It was both the best and the worst place to watch the event. To me, watching from the stands, it seemed a brilliant and exciting performance from Obama (and I have slagged off his speeches in the past.) But, on the other hand, like the rest of the crowd I had been whipped up into a frenzy by the use of rock music and lights, and the sheer sense of occasion. I’m told that some people who watched the speech on TV found it a little on the dull side.

It is clear, however, what the central theme of the Obama campaign is going to be: I feel your pain and the other guy doesn’t. It worked for Clinton in 1992.

And Obama did indeed hit the all-American theme. The place was awash with flags and generals. As a foreigner, one thing that struck me very forcibly is the absolute centrality of the military in US politics – the Democratic convention featured films about veterans, a parade of generals, “wounded warriors” at the podium, repeated references to the fact that Obama’s forebears fought in the second world war and that Biden’s son is shortly to deploy to Iraq. And what is one of the first things that we learn of Mrs Palin? That she too has a son who is about to be sent to Iraq – on September 11th, no less.

Like everybody else, I thought the stage set last night was dreadful. But it seemed to me not so much a Greek temple as a cardboard White House. It was cheesy, presumptious and ridiculous at the same time. And as one Obama supporter put it to me, “If we lose that may be all anybody remembers of tonight.”