After the first round of pre-election debate, the American presidential election has at last become impregnated with surprise and intrigue, and vibrant with tension.
Until that moment, everything had followed the White House scenario. Obama was able to keep his rival at bay – mostly due to reminding the voters that the Republican Mitt Romney is a tycoon, worlds apart from the wants and needs of ordinary people, who will not preoccupy himself with their problems once he occupies Obama’s seat. And the incumbent president kept sending these messages steadily.
DUSTMEN
The last great event in this promo line was a video, in which an Afro-American dustman from Romney’s community complained about his hard life. Romney and the likes of him will never pay attention. Then will not notice him or his hard labor. Other people in the neighborhood will say hello or offer a glass of water, but never the Romneys. They do not realize how important his job is. They will not thank him for doing his important duty. And this work is hard. Jumping off the truck to grab and empty a garbage bin into the truck, jumping back on, a carousel that goes on all day long. Lifting so much garbage wastes away his body, says the man. What is he going to be when old age comes?
What a weepy promo video, for those who know something about class struggle.
Romney only cares for his wealthy friends, emphasize the Democrats. He will not raise their taxes, not even a tiny little bit, so that in this hour of trial with a record-high government debt those more privileged can help their less lucky fellow citizens. So they can help their country, even if a little.
This brings tears even to the eyes of those ignorant of class struggle. They mourn the America they can lose for good, if such rhetoric prevails, because the grateful audience is ever growing.
Romney did already splash fuel onto his opponents’ fire when he recklessly remarked to his supporters that 47 percent of Americans do not pay taxes as it is, and they are determined to vote for Obama no matter what because they are looking forward to payments from the budget, which is made up by contributions from real hard workers, those who managed to make millions. It was a remark he has already publicly apologized for.
What an S.O.B., a potential voter may think to themselves, wondering if they should perhaps go to the polling station, after all. When on earth is this Romney person going to have time to spare for ordinary people, if he only keeps the company of his ilk? Just look at him, the well-groomed, sleek elitist. And look at his pastimes. His favorite sport is not baseball, which all normal guys love. Instead, he prefers equestrian dressage. This is where a perfectly dressed rider demonstrates the skills and esthetics of horse-riding, and Romney will fly as far as to England to watch it, because everyone over there is crazy about that sport, maybe even including horses themselves. But on this side of the Pond any decent red-blooded American is sick of it. Or at least should be.
Such portrayals of Romney throughout the whole campaign have been… quite interesting. They are interesting for several reasons, but in the first place due to the fact that showing Romney in this light, and making people believe it, is no easy task. That is, it is not easy for the propagandists who expect to target a more careful audience.
Those, who had the time to notice that Romney is a convinced Mormon. Those who noticed it in the avalanche of virtually day-to-day mentioning of the fact.
Theological peculiarities aside, Mormons are the people who have a fear of God, do not drink, smoke, or take coffee, do not swear or lie, who work hard, have lots of children, strong families, and read King James’ Bible.
That is, they are first in line to Paradise. Overall, they are modest and gentle folks.
What is perceived to be Romney’s haughtiness and snobbism, is nothing other but sheer modesty. At 65, he is still blushes easily when praised – for instance, for his charity. This is said by those who know him.
The abovementioned video of the angry dustman was, in Romney’s case, not only out of place. It became the irony of the Democrat’s electioneering. Its authors might have easily found out about the following fact of Romney’s biography.
While running for the governor of Massachusetts, Romney fell into a habit of picking up a simple job, ordinarily done by other fellow Massachusetts. He had tried quite some of such jobs, cooking frankfurters at a football stadium for crazed fans, building asphalt roads, stacking hay on a farm, volunteering to work on an ambulance, or even taking care of children.
He called the last job the hardest. Besides, there was another occupation. This is what he writes in his book No Apology:
“One day I was working as a dustman. I was standing on that little platform at the back of the garbage truck, holding fast on as the truck rolled down Boston’s narrow streets. At traffic lights I noticed that shoppers and businesspeople, who were standing just a couple of feet away, hardly ever saw me. As though I was invisible. Maybe, because many of us think that dustmen are not worthy their attention. Here I disagree: everyone who labors hard is worth our respect. I wasn’t a particularly good dustman: once, as I had tossed the garbage into the truck, I pulled a wrong hydraulic lever. Instead of pushing the trash deeper, I dumped it all on the street. The folks in suits might have failed to pay me any attention, but the guys at a construction site close by noticed me at once. ‘You’re doing it great Mitt,’ called they out to me. ‘But don’t you want to find an easier job?’ And then, good-humoredly, they came over and helped me clean the mess.”
EMOTIONS COLLECTORS
Already at the beginning of the debate it was evident that Mitt Romney was more lively, determined, bright, and more dynamic in reacting than Barack Obama. He was firm in his statements and polite at the same time. He also was more emotional and that was the most important. This was a real revelation for the 67 million of Americans who watched the debate.
Suddenly, the man whom they portrayed as a scowling moneybag who belongs to a religious sect, was open, friendly, pleasant, and easy to understand.
Besides he appeared to be a very kind, energetic person who stands on his principles. He turned out to be one of them, only with a bigger bank account. Americans were impressed. And the surveys have showed notable shift right away. For the first time during the campaign they saw that despite the criticism, Romney can still associate himself with them, the ordinary people. Normal, funny man.
That day Obama celebrated the anniversary of his marriage and Romney wished him next time to hold such an event in more romantic situation than in Romney’s company. Such small remarks with a touch of humor and kind irony looked like good improvisation. Like anything unexpected, it was fresh, solid, and was better perceived.
Obama did not improvise as easily. He lost the debate because he followed the certain scenario, known only to him and did not act well when there was a need to deviate from that scenario. This was another reason why he lost the first round of debate.
Romney did the unexpected. During the discussion he began to slightly deviate from the previously declared election platform. He stopped making the small differences between his and Obama’s views look big, as he used to do before. He was moderate. And Obama did not know what to do with all of this, where to criticize his opponent.
His notes, which he used so often, did not have anything on such unexpected turns. Some of what Romney said needed new analysis and there was no time for that. The next day, the Democrats called Romney’s behavior dishonest and accused him of a dirty play.
VOTES COLLECTORS
Surveys were conducted on The Day after the debate took place in the three important electoral states, a victory in which will determine the outcome of the election – Florida, Virginia, and Ohio. In two of them – Florida and Virginia, Romney began to outpace Obama by one percentage point.
This lead is within the statistical error, that is why people here start to view the election race here as an interesting game, exciting and uncompromising. There is no better excitement for the Americans obsessed with competitive sport than not knowing which of the horses will first touch the finish stripe.
Four days after debates the sociological organization Pew Charitable Center announced more expressive results of a nationwide survey: 46 to 46 percent each. This is the score now – a tie.
But the importance of this tie is that until quite recently, within the last month, Romney lagged behind Obama by nine percent on the most important issues in lives of Americans. Another important result of the survey is that Romney eliminated the break with Obama among women. This gap has only recently been over 18 percent.
In only four weeks before the election, no one can be completely certain about the outcome. Previous predictions are now worth nothing. Both camps have received an important incentive to fight for every vote. It so happened that the real struggle begins just now. And it was only an hour and a half TV debate between the candidates that really started it after long months of primaries, thunder of campaigning, and millions of dollars spent on it, as well as the two parties imposing conventions.
Of course, a lot can still change. There are still two rounds of the presidential debate ahead which certainly will be very interesting. There will also be some news about economic affairs. All of this will have an impact on the mood of the electorate. The next few days before the elections will be truly decisive. Both candidates are now at war for all possible votes.
Somewhere among those votes there will be a Ukrainian part. Approximately one million Americans of Ukrainian descent are living in the United States. They traditionally vote for Republicans – defenders of their individualism, thriftiness, workaholism, and other of their peculiarities. These voters, however, are very sensitive to one unexpected factor that occasionally overrides even their usual political outlook. It is the way a candidate treat their ethnic homeland. Once they did not forgive Bush the Republican for his Chicken Kiev speech, in which he urged Ukraine that was then the part of the Soviet Union to remain in the USSR. I do not think they will be able to forgive the Democrat Obama for whispering to Dmitry Medvedev that he would be more flexible in dealing with Moscow after the election.
Recent presidential debate gave another reason for American Ukrainians to follow a Republican. Their vote, however, will be dissolved among many others of those, whose commitment seek the candidates. Because this is the struggle for the most common vote, thanks to which American democracy exists. It is the vote of pragmatism, work, American dream, and the dream that everything will be all right – vote of the middle class.
