US Elections

[BertiWooster]

Has John McCain , pulled a rabbit out of the hat , by choosing a woman as his running mate ?

Do you think that it , will have a subliminal effect on voter choice ?

[stokemaveric]

if the yanks look at what a woman did for this country then they wont vote for mcain.....unless they want their country ruined that is............

[vehelpfulguy]

Sorry, but while I think it is important for English people to know about the US president why do we have the have this expensive and long winded US election rammed down our throats every day.

If the Americans want to spend 9 months and hundreds of millions of dollars finding someone to STAND for president then let them do it, but we dont need to know the ins and outs of the whole process.

Does our news media spend so long on the Russian or Chinese elections, no of course not.

Do the Americans care about our elections, of course not (most dont even know who our prime minister is).

Let them have their "las vegas" style politics, and once the president has been elected let us know, up till then stop ramming it down our throats.

[vehelpfulguy]

To show you how obscene their election process is, Hilary Clinton spent 212 MILLION dollars on her campaign.

And still lost.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/ 06/09/2008-06-09_hillary_clinton_paid_a_heavy_ price_for_p.html

[Prudentia]

in my opinion he's pulled a master stroke, obama is a loser, all wind and no substance see nostradadamus and 'mabus'

[vehelpfulguy]

I assume stokemaveric is refering to Margaret Thatcher.

The woman who was so awful she won three general elections (Gordon Brown will be lucky to win one).

The woman who took over the country after the Labour party had got us into a terrible mess, see Winter of discontent for how bad it was when she took over:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_Discont ent

The woman who took a country that was a laughing stock in Europe and made it one of the most successful countries in Europe.

Certainly any success Labour had from 1997 onwards was down to the groundwork Margeret Thatcher laid while in office.

Yes, she went a bit over the top near the end, but dont forget all the good work she did before then.

(and no claptrap about closing the mines, all the mines that stayed open have closed since because they were uneconomic).

[stokemaveric]

vhg..............''all the good work she has done'' im at a loss here....she screwed the ordinary working man to the hilt,her policies are STILL hurting the british people to this very day,ie the council tax,the privatisation of the utility services are the legacy of this woman and are the main economic drain of millions of families,yes she did this country and its civilians proud didnt she?.....lets couple that with the signing of the anglo/irish agreement which sold the northern irish people down the river she really was a great stateswoman wasnt she?..........not.........

[jno]

VHG, when you consider where George W Bush has taken us, and the world in general, I think it's clear the US election is of huge importance to us.

In answer to the question, it did Walter Mondale no good in 1984
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_Ferraro

[BertiWooster]

A lot of people accuse britain of being America's poodle - if that is the case , we should be interested in who is going to succeed Bush , and ultimately for who the poodle is going to retreive the stick .

We cannot keep our heads in the sand , pretending that we are immune and insulated from the effects of american foreign policy . Recent events clearly illustrate that .

I for one hope that Obama is succesful - as it appears that McCain will continue more or less , with the present incumbent's policy

[stokemaveric]

no matter who the president of the u.s.a is britain will stand ''shoulder to shoulder'' with them economic climates dictate that very fact,the american soldiers are fine warriors,but alas whatever theatre we are in with them their trigger happy fingers will cost us lives in ''friendly fire'' incidents....nothing to do with the u.s presidential issues i know but while we are hooked up with them all the time there will be nothing but tears for this country..........

[rov1200]

That $212 million would have paid off a lot of the unpaid mortgages that Americans have accumulated. Priorities all wrong! Richest country in the world and so much money squandered on wars and preening politicians.

[Kromovaracun]

That $212m. were mostly donations. Ergo money people willingly gave to the campaign (even if Hilary herself made a considerable contribution). I hardly think it's obscene for people to be so active in the politial process.

It's very easy to play up corruption in U.S politics. Very, very easy. But the simple fact is that while it's most certainly present (as it is in the UK) - American politicians are not everyone likes to think they are. McCain for instance was instrumental in passing the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act and has long been an opponent of 'pork-barrel' spending - if the logic of some people were true, he wouldn't have any support.

The fact is that the USA electoral process is flawed. But it's also very sophisticated. I'd much rather have a system were party affiliates can have a say in who they'd like to put up for election rather than having parties completely dominate the selection process.

[Kromovaracun]

As for the original question - I think McCain's running mate will be a bigger consideration for voters than Obama's because of McCain's age (as she's more likely to have to step in). So I think it'll certainly be a consideration.

I don't really know what to make of the fact that she's a woman because I don't really know anything about her or her relationship with McCain, so I couldn't really say whether it's just PR or not.

[Kromovaracun]

American politicians are not everyone likes to think they are.

D'oh!

This should read 'American politicians are not the puppets that everyone likes to think they are.'