Reality Check

I had a nightmare last night.  It was gruesome.  I was somewhere in the U.S., in some non-descript city, walking along on a busy street.  There didn't seem to be anything particularly out of sorts, except the people walking past me all had a certain stoicism in their expressions, a solidity as if they were impregnable to both happiness and despair.  Then suddenly I caught something large crashing onto the street out of the corner of my eye.  I looked over and in horror saw the body of Barack Obama lying mangled in the middle of the road.  No one else took any notice.  Cars just carried on, running him over, crushing him beyond recognition.  The people on the sidewalk didn't even look over, their expressions stayed as stolid as if they were machines, like they didn't have the capacity to feel anymore.  Then another body came hurtling down from the heavens.  Smash! It hit the pavement directly in front of me.  Again, it was Obama, a look of despair on his frozen face.  People walked oblviously along, stepping around, over and sometimes even on the body.  

Another body fell, this time behind me. I could hear the crunch of bones colliding with solid concrete but I didn't look back.  I didn't have to - bodies started raining down on this non-descript American city, all Obamas, all with that look of depair carved onto their faces.  And no one cared.   

I woke up this morning with two thoughts running through my head: are we doing it again? Are we falling into the classic trap, the one in which we pin all of our hopes on a single individual only to have them come crashing down around us when we inevitably discover that this is just a man, a great man indeed, but in the end, a human being with all the frailties and limitations that go along with being human.  Then I thought what if the Republicans planned this all along?  Of course, this is going to sound like conspiracy theory but I don't doubt that there are some Republicans in Washington, especially neo-cons, kicking back and smiling now that the burden of America has been lifted from their shoulders.  Someone else has to deal with the next 5 years, arguably the most difficult 5 years America will face in at least a generation.  Did the Republicans intentionally pass up the presidency knowing that no administration is going to be able to fix America, knowing full well that things are going to get worse before they get any better?  People around the world pin prophetic hopes on Obama but what happens when we all realize that he can't save the world?  Will we abandon him?  Will the American people turn their backs on what ultimately is an experiment in American politics?  

Will they run back into the waiting arms of the Republicans in 2013?

I hate conspiracy theories.  They lead to dangerous thoughts, to misguided teleologies.  Like why did McCain choose Sarah Palin as his running mate?  Before that disasterous decision, he still had a chance; it was an uphill battle but the prize was still within reach.  Choosing Sarah-barracuda was political suicide.  Was it, in fact, suicide?

Who knows.  I leave that conspiracy theory in the hands of much more adept conspirators than myself.  But I can't ignore the message in my nightmare.  I look forward to the Obama years but I will not place the burden of salvation on his shoulders.  If I do, then his despair, the one carved into all of those faces lying crumpled on the streets of that non-descript U.S. city, will be the despair of the entire world.  

The Palin Pep Rally

I don't understand. Reading the media wrap up on Sarah Palin's speech at the Republic National Convention last night, you'd think something monumental had just happened. You'd think, based on the hyperbolic headlines in U.S. media, that perhaps there was some muster in what at first looked like Republican presidential candidate John McCain's desperately political stab at playing courtier to the still-smarting supporters of Senator Hillary Clinton. Choosing Palin as his running mate appeared to so many like the final nail in McCain's sinking campaign.

What a difference 30 minutes can make.

But I still don't get it. I read the transcript of her speech. I watched the first 20-minutes of it on youtube. Rousing, I thought. This woman can talk, no doubt about it (albeit with what I felt was a slightly condescending tone). But after reading the speech more carefully, I realized that she really didn't say much. In fact, what she did say was down-right disturbing, a half hour of Bush-speak peppered with words like "evil" and "danger." In short, an elegy to dead policy dressed up in a power-suit and lipstick. Is this the "new" face of the Republicans McCain is promising. Mama Republican?

Don't get me wrong: I appreciate the "mom" sentiment. I have no problem with a mom leading any country, even the most powerful country in the world. But I don't think being a good mom counts as a credential for the U.S. vice-presidency. Family values? Sure, would be great in a politician but valuing your own family doesn't qualify you for running a country. It's a perk, not a prerequisite for leadership. Small-town ethics? Okay, now, how do you transplant those ethics onto the world stage? Will the Israeli-Palestinian conflict benefit from PTA diplomacy? I'm afraid a bake sale ain't gonna solve that one.

So the question comes back to: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be the next U.S. Vice-President? Nothing in her speech convinces me that she is. When she says something like "victory is in sight" in Iraq, she reveals a gross lack of understanding of the ground reality there. Here, I mean. I'm on the ground in Iraq right now and I can assure you nothing around here looks like victory (more on that in my upcoming article in Maclean's). In fact, to talk about the Iraq war using the same terminology as a hockey game shows a chilling insensitivity toward the people of Iraq - you know, those human beings who happen to be suffering - still suffering - because of an unjust war. But Republicans are experts at insensitivity. In Iraq, it's either win or lose and, as so many Republicans, from George W. Bush to John McCain, and now to Sarah Palin, have said, "losing" is unacceptable.

I wish it were so simple. Frankly, I don't particularly care what any U.S. President or VP says or does about American domestic policy. That's none of my business: I'm not American. But foreign policy affects us all. Environmental policy is a global issue. And on these two counts, Palin is unpalatable. She would continue on the Bush path with Iran, a path (or should I say "bridge?") to nowhere. She would open up Alaska to oil and gas drilling because, damn it, Alaska's "got lots of both." She doesn't trust those bloody oil-soaked Arabs because, well, "they don't have [America's] interests at heart" (that one made me cringe).

If the republicans win the next election, this would be President McCain's right hand...ahem...person. And considering all the power current VP Dick Cheney has corralled into the Vice-Presidential office over his 8-year rampage, especially when it comes to security issues, I'm not comforted by the thought. Palin happens to be accused of bullying Alaskan state officials to fire an employee because he didn't play nice with her sister in divorce proceedings. It is still just an allegation but the fact that she is being investigated for misuse of power makes me worry about what she will potentially do with all that power she stands to inherit from Cheney.

In the end, I'll give McCain this much: he knows how to even the score. The way I see it, Obama picked Biden to add a seasoned veteran face to his campaign line up. McCain picked Palin to pep up a pasty image and to add some punch to what was his own flaccid campaign. Oddly, the matchup is now pretty even: Obama-Palin for youth and vigour; McCain-Biden for experience. The difference is that Obama's choice was politically sound; McCain's was opportunistic. He picked Sarah-barracuda. Some barracudas, however, are toxic. Come election time, I hope Americans will figure that out.