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Meghan McCain humanizes her Dad’s campaign


News

October 23, 2008/6.06


One of our team, who hails from Washington state, thinks I remind her of Gov. Sarah Palin when I say, ‘You betcha,’ which I have used as part of my regular speech for around 20 years. A lot of my family is American but it’s not from that, but from a line uttered by Andy Griffith somewhere in his long career. I liked the folksy nature of it—heck, anything Andy Griffith said came across as folksy, even when he played a villain in Spy Hard.
   So I am not specifically marketing the Republican campaign when I mention the blog of Meghan McCain, daughter of the senator.
   McCain Blogette is not Miss McCain’s alone—she shares it with two other contributors who are on the Straight Talk Express—but I would love to know if the Democrats have a similar insiders’ blog.
   It shows behind-the-scenes images not just of her and various Americans who support her father, but some from before the most recent debate. Her parents are in some, her paternal grandmother, and Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman.
   And it does what neither Sen. McCain, Gov. Palin, nor conservative media can do: humanize the campaign.

   While one of the Blogette crew is probably of east Asian descent, it was interesting to note the relative absence of Americans of African descent. I originally spotted a picture of one, only to discover later that he was the bus driver, and it took a fair bit of surfing to find others.
   Of course there are Americans of all colours supporting Sen. John McCain, just as there are for Sen. Barack Obama. I do know of the huge support Sen. Barack Obama has from the black community, most recently from Gen Colin Powell.
   On another blog here on Vox, some Americans have remarked how the Republicans have attracted a white, “redneck” vote.
   And I have no idea how other groups are swinging.
   In one of the conversations I had yesterday with our customers, one noted that we—as people—liked to put people into discrete little boxes. Sen. Obama is half-white, as is Halle Berry. Few mention Halle Berry’s Mancunian roots. Some label Sen. Obama ‘black’ when he has seldom made his race part of his message.
   It worries me a little that the support might be divided this way, in much the same way as how the O. J. Simpson murder trial verdict’s support was split between blacks and whites. One side could not see the other’s points of view and the creation of little racial boxes has clouded matters.
   As the world evolves and more and more people come from multiple heritages, these considerations will disappear and, I hope, we will go back to the issues and the merits of the candidates.
   I realize I have grouped voters into boxes, too—so maybe it’s the way the mind works. We place things into the constructs that we have grown up with, and the ones that do not suit how we see the world going forward really need to be cast aside. And constructs based around race in 2008 are irrelevant at best and dangerous at worst.
   And maybe by blogging about this point, for whatever it’s worth, Americans will place their votes on November 4 for the person who will best serve them. Both Sens. McCain’s and Obama’s records are there for all who wish to examine them, aside from the party rhetoric and various media cheerleaders.


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Filed by Jack Yan

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