The New Face of the Republican Party: Barack Obama

As this exciting election campaign continues to enthral, one thing is becoming increasingly clear. It’s not just the American youth, liberals, and adoring European masses who are obsessed with Barack Obama and stricken with a severe case of Obamania; Republicans are too. It’s old news that Obama has drawn in large swathes of Republicans who are disillusioned with their political establishment. The group ‘Republicans for Obama’ has long been established. However, the virus of Obama celebrity has moved from early onset to second phase symptoms. The first signs may have been that Obama blurred the lines of ‘red’ and ‘blue’ states putting Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina, and Montana, among others, into play, and snatching states like Iowa. The progression was clear as high profile Republicans such as Richard Nixon’s daughter and a former Ronald Reagan speechwriter opted to support Obama. Now it’s getting harder to monitor as those who intend to vote against Obama simply cannot take their eyes off of him, do not seem comfortable when his name is not on their lips, and go red faced whenever he flatters to appear- be it blushing or with anger. Leading the infected Republicans as they fixate over the Democratic candidate’s every word, breath, and movement, is their own presidential hopeful, John McCain.

The most casual glance at some of the punditry that is sympathetic to the McCain campaign will reveal at least two characteristics. Firstly, it is far more focused on Obama than McCain. Secondly, that focus is irritatingly repetitive. It would appear that some pro-McCain commentators are programmed like robots and receive a CD once a month which they download. Once the information has been successfully stored the pundit must then repeat every kilobyte of data assimilated, and do so every time a camera is within a 100 metre radius. Unfortunately, the net result of this is that viewers are not being given reasons why they should vote for McCain, rather their ears bleed as they listen to selected media personalities tell their audience why they should dislike Obama, usually through attacks, very often of a personal nature, through any given tiresome iterance. One should not expect to hear valid reasons why not to support Obama, rather the mere fact that he was a ‘community organiser’ will be disparaged (Sean Hannity), or his popularity in Europe will be demeaned (every Republican commentator), or his catalogue of ‘flip-flops’ will be re-iterated incessantly(every Republican commentator)- as if being open to changing facts or listening and then evaluating is such a bad thing, and is if McCain hasn’t changed his mind considerably in the past six months. Denunciations of Obama are very often crassly hypocritical. It would not be unusual to hear him pilloried for changing his mind, and castigated for not being open to the facts on the ground in Iraq in the same sentence. In one insightful edition of Hannity and Colmes, Sean Hannity repeated this script and then agreed as Dick Morris accused Obama of talking out of both sides of his mouth.

Republican websites are bearing the brunt of Obamania most visibly. A brief visit to http://www.gop.com/ and one will realise that it looks more a like a photo spread on Barack Obama then the senior Republican website ostensibly supporting John McCain. The talented GOP strategists took their Obama image database one step further and created http://www.meetbarackobama.com/ . Herein is the real Obama, or so it is claimed, but really it’s just plenty more photos of the Illinois senator for the self-flagellating fan, who loves him so much he hates him, to get his fix of visual penance. Genius never rests, and so Barackbook was created. Crass plagiarism of Facebook aside, there is nothing inventive here, nor is it going to capture the youth that Republicans have lost. It’s simply more of the same allegations, and of course, plenty of pictures.

And so, with everyone stricken down by Obamania, was John McCain really immune? It would seem that his bodily defences surrendered in July resulting in a spate of negative Obama-focused campaign ads. Four stand out in particular. Two were tailored for Obama’s overseas tour and contain a series of fairly scurrilous allegations on Iraq, Afghanistan, and Obama’s commitment to injured service personnel that have been routinely discredited. Naturally, Obama’s image accounts for over 50% of the footage in these ads. Then there is another in which Obama is ludicrously blamed for high gas prices in the US. Apparently, the junior senator, who, as it is charged, has no experience and has never made a real decision, actually is responsible for the entire condition of American energy and the burden on the consumer. Of course, the best until last. The McCain campaign unleashed this gem yesterday. Entitled ‘celeb’, Obama is displayed in a collection of footage that highlights his popularity, and is then compared to crestfallen celebrities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. The subliminal message was clearly designed for a chimpanzee: ‘Obama is popular, tens of thousands turn out to hear him speak, that makes him a celebrity, oh wait Britney and Paris are also celebrities, would you like one of them to be president?’ ‘Hell, no!’ One’s inner voice replies. The subliminal narrator continues, ‘well, Obama is just like them, because they’re all celebrities, that means voting for Obama would be like voting for a spoilt, drugged-up socialite.’ Shortly after the images of Hilton and Spears appear ‘is he ready to lead?’ emblazons the screen. Just in case the message evades anybody.

Leaving aside one’s outrage that Republicans have stabbed in the back, Britney Spears, the only celebrity to support Bush in 2004, this trend reveals a lot about the state of the ‘Grand Old Party’. They apparently concede that the best way to get a voters attention is to flash images of Obama on the screen. The fact that they are using the strategy of ‘Obama versus Obama’ shows that they are bankrupt of means to bring their ideas to the public, if they even have those ideas. They have unashamedly resorted to the politics of fear. The fact that the Republican Party, which has sat outside the White House for only twelve of the last forty years, is in this condition is quite pathetic. Moreover, John McCain, the self-styled political maverick, who always denounced negative campaigning and fear politics, is now using it as his only trump card. It would seem the buzzwords of ‘experience’ and ‘country first’ did not do enough in the polls and so that message has to be accompanied by Obama in all manner of poses. It may yet work for them, though it would appear unlikely. McCain is not too far behind Obama on national polls of ‘registered voters’, though he is further behind on polls of ‘likely voters’. However, it is in the electoral college that the real bloodbath may await. So long the saving grace for Republicans, it allowed Reagan and Nixon to win 49 states in Caesar-like conquests, and it practically gave Bush the election in 2000. Now state by state polls suggest Obama will clear the hurdle of 300 electoral college votes. Republicans are up against a political force as vibrant and virile as JFK or Reagan, if not better. It is they who are suffering from the politics of fear.

In another McCain ad, the US mainstream media is shown in a succession of clips doting over and practically professing their love to Barack Obama. It must have caused some embarrassment as Chris Matthews calls him ‘a gift from the world to us’, Lee Cowen says that ‘it’s not cool if you haven’t seen Barack Obama in person’, and Jack Cafferty compares him to the Rolling Stones. Worse yet, one pundit claims he felt a thrill running up his leg when hearing him speak. Well, the media may have thrills running up their legs, but Republicans have something running down theirs. It’s urine.