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1111La surprise fut considérable, du type “Sarah who?” pour montrer l’anonymat complet dans le système de la personne, rappelant le “Jimmy who?” qui avait salué la nomination comme candidat du parti démocrate à l’été 1976 de Jimmy Carter. (Au fait, Jimmy Carter avait gagné l’élection.) Bref, “Sarah who?” est en réalité Sarah Palin, gouverneur de l’Etat de l’Alaska, femme à peine mûre (44 ans) et encore attrayante, dont on vous dit notamment qu’elle dut être quelque part dans sa jeunesse reine de beauté. Le fait est qu’elle n’a aucune expérience dans les domaines qui feraient d’elle une vice-présidente (VP) acceptable, alors que la fonction est devenue si importante, et que tout cela n’est certes pas de sa faute; la semaine dernière encore, “Sarah who?” rigolait lorsqu’un journaliste lui demandait si elle avait des chances d’être choisie comme candidate VP par le républicain John McCain.
Quelle est la cause de sa désignation, dans ce cas qui semble bien peu être de son initiative? Deux choses.
• C’est une femme. Formidable atout, face à un black (l’Africain Américain Obama) qui a éliminé une autre femme (Hillary Clinton, effectivement de sexe féminin). L’idée est de ramener quelques électeurs d’Hillary vers le parti républicain pour l’occasion. Jerome Corsi, qui est selon le Sunday Times du 31 août «one of America’s best-known character assassins», qui pense et écrit que le Pape est “sénile”, que Hillary Clinton est lesbienne, que Obama se prend pour le Messie, qui se place à l’extrême droite de la droite bigote du parti républicain, qui déteste McCain parce qu’il le juge trop à gauche, qui est l’auteur de The Obama Nation annonçant une dictature orwellienne si Obama est élu, – Corsi, donc, «believes that Sarah Palin is a “brilliant pick” who will capture Hillary Clinton’s voters».
• Justement, et c’est l’un des autres motifs de la joie de Corsi, Sarah Palin est réputée pour ses positions d’extrême droite renvoyant au fondamentalisme chrétien qui constitua la base électorale essentielle de GW Bush. L’affaire est mise en évidence dans une analyse signeusement venimeuse de WSWS.org de ce jour: «Palin’s nomination was hailed by the extreme-right and Christian fundamentalist elements who have long dominated among Republican Party activists, and who have been largely estranged from the McCain campaign. The Alaska governor is an evangelical Protestant who opposes abortion rights even for victims of rape and incest or when the life of the mother is at stake. She opposes gay marriage and even visitation rights for gay parents in the event of illness, and advocates the teaching of creationism in public schools.»
Particulièrement savoureux dans cette analyse, le passage consacré aux diverses conditions, dont certaines anecdotiques mais révélatrices, de la sélection de Sarah Palin par McCain. La candidate VP ne fut pas choisie dans une pochette-surprise parce que, dans une pochette-surprise, il y a au moins une pré-sélection dans ce que les promoteurs de la chose décident d’y mettre. (Au reste, qu'on se rassure: les enquêteurs, notamment démocrates, se sont mis en chasse et nous en connaîtrons bientôt plus, et des croustillantes, à propos de “Sarah who?”.)
«There is a strong element of recklessness and irresponsibility in McCain’s selection. He selected not only someone without any significant national or international experience, but someone whom he does not himself know and who is virtually unknown to the American public.
»McCain had precisely one discussion with Palin this year, for 15 minutes at a conference in Washington last February, before calling her last week. His encounter with her Thursday, when he offered her the second highest position in the American government, amounted to two hours. Press accounts noted that their initial campaign bus trip—a six-hour swing from Dayton through Columbus to the outskirts of Pittsburgh—more than doubled the total time they had spent together.
»The selection was so unexpected, and the decision so closely held, that there were not even any McCain-Palin signs printed for the initial rallies, with the crowds waving signs carrying only the name of the presidential candidate or his slogan, “Country First.”
»Palin sought to play the card of identity politics, presenting herself as a spokeswoman for those supporters of Hillary Clinton who felt that Clinton had received sexist treatment from the media or the Obama campaign during the contest for the Democratic nomination. This posture did not go over well with the right-wing audience at the Pennsylvania rally, which booed Clinton’s name when Palin invoked her as a model.
»McCain reiterated Sunday, in a series of television interviews, that the Alaska governor was the most qualified person he could have chosen for the vice presidency. Asked about previous statements that he would select the person “most prepared to take my place” in the event of a crisis, McCain replied that Palin was that person.»
Ces conditions du choix de la VP sont-elles scandaleuses ou extraordinaires, tout comme le choix lui-même? Certains le pensent et y voient même le choix d’un candidat qui se trouve dans des conditions désespérées. WSWS.org fait à ce point quelques intéressantes remarques, qui peuvent être lues avec encore plus de profit lorsqu’on les dépouille des expressions diverses à tendance marxiste et trotskiste; le fond subsiste et il rencontre sans aucun doute notre conviction que le système fonctionne aujourd’hui de lui-même, selon sa propre dynamique, et que les choix de personnes tout comme la politique elle-même sont des facteurs annexes; il semble qu’on exige de ces personnes choisies essentiellement une habileté d’adaptation aux consignes de ce même système. WSWS.org renvoie au choix de GW en décembre 2000, GW qui n’était alors “pas plus qualifié” que la candidate VP après tout. On ne peut dire le contraire. Voici les remarques:
«The choice of Palin was depicted by some media commentators as an act of political desperation, an indication that the McCain campaign sees the November 4 election as virtually unwinnable without such a political adventure. But there is another side to the selection. Insofar as McCain’s choice of Palin potentially puts a political cipher in position to assume the presidency, it demonstrates that the president and vice-president are, in the final analysis, figureheads for the state machine.
»If the McCain-Palin ticket were to be elected and the incoming president, already 72 years old and a cancer victim, does not survive his term, the Pentagon, the CIA, the NSA, the FBI and all the other repressive agencies of the American state would continue to function and carry out their program of imperialist war and internal repression under a President Palin. They have, after all, continued to carry out their filthy work through the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush, who is no more “qualified” than Palin in any conventional sense.
»The real government of the United States is not created by the votes of the people on the first Tuesday in November. It consists of the permanent machinery of state that serves the interests of the ruling elite, regardless of the identity of the occupant of the White House, and regardless of which of the two big business parties holds office.»
Il reste néanmoins intéressant de mieux connaître la psychologie d’un candidat lorsque cette psychologie existe et qu’elle peut jouer un rôle éventuel dans son gouvernement s’il est élu, en dépit de toutes les prudences et les mesures de contrôle du système. Il s’agit en l’occurrence de John McCain, dont les intempérances et écarts de caractère sont connus. John Chuckman en fait un portrait, ci-après, qui n’est pas précisément tendre.
By John Chuckman, 29 August 2008
McCain does a good job with the appearance of a boyishly honest man. He puts on his quiet voice and uses his boyish (albeit now partially fossilized) expressions and, reminding me of Richard Nixon during something like his Checkers speech, sometimes glances down at his well-shined shoes, as though wordlessly to say, see what a good boy I am.
McCain’s actual record of ethics and behavior is rather dreary, and it is a subject which mysteriously eludes treatment in mainline media which seem always ready to treat trivia like flag pins. There are many parallels of insensitivity, anger, aggression, limited capacities, and grotesque humor with George Bush.
McCain was, quite simply, a nasty brat as a young man. There are many stories of the way he bullied others, including teachers, stories perhaps easy to make light of fifty years later, but not funny if you were his victim and, more importantly, all too similar to stories of his adult behavior. He was a poor student. He always took advantage of being the son and grandson of admirals to get away with his sometimes vicious antics and failures.
Despite his favorite public act as boyish fighter pilot, he apparently remains an often nasty man in private. Many fellow politicians, including Republicans, testify to his furious, spluttering temper and the use of the most obscene words to friends and work associates with whom he is unhappy. There is also the story, related by a Republican, of his sudden physical attack on a member of the government of Nicaragua during a Congressional mission.
When McCain’s being shot down in Vietnam is discussed, the fact that he was bombing civilians is almost never mentioned. He's just lucky he survived. He might well have been torn limb from limb had he been a Vietnamese pilot shot down in Texas. How did he survive being shot down? After all, he landed in a body of water and he was hurt. A group of local villagers, and one Vietnamese man in particular, Mai Van On, left their bomb shelters and pulled McCain from the water where he would certainly have drowned otherwise.
That brave and decent Vietnamese man, whom McCain once acknowledged, died recently, a very disheartened man that McCain never showed any real sign of thanks or reciprocity. His wife has spoken to the press on this. After all, in many cultures, someone’s saving your life creates a powerful bond or debt, but apparently not for John McCain. Apart from some fitting communication from the man who went on to become famous, imagine how even a little money order from this well-off man could have altered the lives of those who saved him?
When McCain returned home to the wife who had waited for him for the five and a half years he was in prison, he discovered his wife had been in a terrible car accident in which she was disfigured. Instead of compassion and loyalty, McCain started a series of affairs, ending with wealthy future wife Cindy. He left his crippled wife to marry the money. It was a pretty shabby display, reminiscent of Newt Gingrich’s telling a wife dying of cancer he was divorcing her, but it did considerably help finance his political career.
During the great savings-and-loan scandals, McCain was at the center, having got a lot of money and favors from (to-be convicted felon) Charles Keating.
McCain’s second wife, Cindy, was a drug addict, by her own admission. She also stole a large quantity of drugs from a charity for which she did volunteer work to feed her habit, an act which would earn you or me hard time in prison in Bush's America. You do have to ask about the mental state of a woman who is said to be worth $300 million yet who steals the drugs she craves.
But Cindy got off with a slap on the wrist, thanks in part to the efforts of her husband. This law-and-order conservative, this defender of the hard line in the war on drugs, saw nothing wrong in using his influence. No insistence here that Cindy do the time that he and Bush insist on, and snigger over, for young black men caught with modest quantities of cocaine.
Cindy, in her efforts to soften her brittle Bergdorf Goodman image – or whatever expensive store it is in New York to which she regularly flies to buy racks of clothes - and connect with average Americans, also had the minor flap of being caught misrepresenting other people’s recipes as her own. Integrity does not appear to be a strong McCain family value.
Recently McCain had a hard time remembering how many houses he and Cindy owned. Does anyone believe that that is the kind of personal matter someone forgets? If he was indeed being honest, then almost certainly Alzheimer’s has set in. More likely though, he was not being honest, trying to deflect an embarrassing question. The latest count on the houses is eight.
McCain, in 2000, told us exactly what he really thinks of the Religious Right. After all, he is known as a rather irreligious, worldly man. He did endear himself to many as he lambasted the Religious Right’s nasty, inappropriate influence in American politics, but practically the next day, he was crawling around on his belly, saying he was sorry, having quickly realized what he had done to his political ambitions.
And that last pattern has been typical of McCain's entire public career. Shoot off his mouth, make big noises about being tough and honest, and then crawl back quietly shortly afterward, having achieved nothing but adding a notch to the reputation he relishes as a maverick.
Of course, there never has been a bombing run McCain did not eagerly support. He embraces enthusiastically, consistently, all war measures, no matter how weak or foolish the reasons used to support them. That’s why Lieberman, supposedly a Democrat, supports McCain so enthusiastically, Lieberman being another man who never saw a bombing run he did not like nor an excuse too flimsy to support one.
As for McCain’s humor, nothing so reveals him for the mild psychopath that he is. The sense his humor conveys, at least a good deal of it, is very much along the lines of what Bush's humor conveys. As, for example, the time Bush made some twisted comment and facial expressions to reporters about the pitiful woman he refused to stay from execution in Texas despite her pleas as a converted Christian. Or Bush's comment to reporters in Chicago when, not long after 9/11, he joked about having “won the trifecta” with his new-found popularity. Or the story from an acquaintance of his youth about his favorite stunt, repeated many times over, of shoving lit firecrackers into the mouths of captured frogs and watching them blow up. The disgusting nature of some of McCain’s jokes is summarized hère.
After eight years of Bush’s incompetence and stupid brutality, are we to have another man as president reflecting many of the same qualities and views? One recent poll showed that while nearly ninety percent of Republicans would support McCain, only seventy-three percent of Hillary Clinton’s supporters would support Obama. These disaffected voters should examine closely the character of the man for whom they may vote in protest. John McCain is certainly well aware of them. He just picked a soccer mom from Alaska as his candidate for vice president.
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