... willow?

September 24th, 2008 - The presidential campaign of the United States may slow to a halt as Republican candidate John McCain wants to postpone all debates and electoral appearances. Mr. McCain feels that the current economic crisis is more important than the electoral campaign and therefore all should stop while the different branches of gouvernment establish a short and long-term solution. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party insinuates that this is only a campaign tactic in the midst of waining support for the Republicans. Furthermore, Democrats argue that the electoral campaign is crucial to acertain the motives and personal solutions of the next President who will be thrust into a financial nightmare very soon.

Firstly, one would think that McCain's gesture is a noble one, embodying integrity and courage to adress the real issues. He seems to aknowledge the general boredom and indifference of the Amercian populace towards an endless election year filled with propaganda, super-delegates, debates, an electoral college and Bristol Palin. In parallel, he acknowledges that the small voter cares a lot more about his wallet, his mortgage and the potential evaporation of his retirement fund than this excercise in democracy. Conversely, these elegant realisations seem to explicitely imply that Mr. McCain offers a concrete solution to really engage and solve American economic preoccupations. He is not, it is a ploy. He will join the president in the White House and they will debate over a 700 billion dollar plan to bail out financial institutions that dug their own fiscal grave over the past decade. I fail to see how anything will change for the accountant or sales clerk in Montana if the proposed plan is successful and what Mr. McCain will contribute to it.

This brings me to another point. Very few senators and gouvernors have come to the apocalyptic realisation that if this insane amount of capital fails to refinance and rebuild America's financial institutions, this recession will inevitably progress into full-blown depression; the kind with suicides on wall street, massive bankruptcies and food coupons.

In the blue corner, there are two very valid arguments against postponing the upcoming presidential debate this Friday ; one of which they have not used and may find interesting if they read this blog. Firstly, president Bush may be ridiculed worldwide yet the man is president and has a full cabinet that administer the most powerful nation on earth; he has my respect for that. Having established my lack of animosity towards the character, even I have to admit that he is the last person that should be adressing the Nation about economic policy and fiscal resolution. Furthermore, his presidency ends at the end of this year and if anyone is certain of anything, it is that the US economic quagmire will still be there in 2009. This is why both candidates must establish their own economic foresight and convince the electors of their worth (Note to CNN – this will constitute what we actually want from you, not a 2 hour exposé on Sarah Palin’s glasses). This is not a time to postpone anything; it is actually the WORST time to postpone anything.

The second argument against halting this campaign brings us to the historical portion of today’s class. Mr. McCain declared that this financial crisis supercedes politics and that we must stop this campaign to adress it. After mush research, I have discovered that this has NEVER occured in the United State’s 232 years of existence.

That’s right, when James Madison won the presidency in 1812, the British and French were intercepting and sinking their commercial ships and funding Indian raids on the country (a few randy Canadians even took a boat ride down south and burnt down the White House). When Ulysses S. Grant campaigned and won his 1868 elections it was amidst a painful national reconstruction following a civil war and the secession of the South. In 1916, promoting an impossible agenda of neutrality, Widrow Wilson would not pause his campaign as tens of thousands of soldiers were dying in trenches. He won months before he sent his own troops to Europe. Perhaps the greatest president the Americans have ever had, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, courageously campaigned his way to four terms as president. First in 1932, he proposed a shiny « New Deal » to lift the country out of economic depression. He did not have the wait and see attitude that would have left incumbent Herbert Hoover (the president who clearly failed to prevent the crisis *wink) to dream up his own 700 billion dollar solution. Finally, if there was ever a time to halt a campaign and postpone a debate, it was in 1944 when president Roosevelt won his fourth term. Pearl Harbour had shocked American minds, dissipating the illusions that the war was confined to Europe and that the dreaded "Yellow Peril" was an uncivilised nuisance at best, as social darwinism had stipulated at the time. 10,000 people died every day during the war and conscription guaranteed that every American family was impacted in some way by the war effort. Nonetheless, the campaign raged on and two candidates proposed their plan of action to end the war victoriously, speedily and decisively.

Republican candidate McCain may have fooled the public into thinking he was a considerate genius but we can be sure that he underestimates the importance of the electoral process profoundly; no matter how drawn-out and boring people may find it.

(Pictured: President Roosevelt signing the declaration of war against Japan - John McCain, stopping a speech to point out a squirrel)

End.