What’s the real “dream ticket?” According to Yannick Mireur who writes for the French magazine Les Echos – it’s McCain-Obama.
In describing what makes this this year’s U.S. presidential race so fascinating, Mireur writes:
“The McCain-Obama face-off is already turning the November presidential election into an exceptional moment in American history. A Republican rebel in his seventies confronting a mixed-raced newcomer to national politics almost looks like an accidental hiccup. It is a sign that the political apparatus no longer knows how to respond to the nation’s challenges. Both candidates embody the quest for what historian Arthur Schlesinger once called ‘the vital center.’
Then Mireur describes what’s at stake, and the dichotomy of the two opponents:
“America is at a turning point. As at other times in its history, it must reinvent a social contract and a global strategy. To accomplish this re-invention, McCain and Obama are condemned to fight on the ground of progressivism. The difficulty is that this invention was the work of a Republican and its full realization occurred under a Democrat. The first, Theodore Roosevelt, is the hero of John McCain; the second, Franklin Roosevelt, is an icon of the Democrats.
Ultimately though – Mireur concludes that polarization and pandering look likely to wreak havoc on the best laid plans of both candidates:
“John McCain, who supported a bill for progressive immigration despite the anti-Latino mood of voters, prefers the card of the Iranian-Islamist menace. Barack Obama, who first spoke audaciously, had to sing the song of protectionism to reassure “blue collars” voters hit by industrial restructuring. … The re-invention of America could be the first casualty of the electoral battle. In the end, the ideal combination for the United States would be a McCain-Obama ticket!”
By Yannick Mireur
Translated By Sandrine Agoerges
May 23, 2008
France – Les Echos – Original Article (French)
The McCain-Obama face-off is already turning the November presidential election into an exceptional moment in American history. A Republican rebel in his seventies confronting a mixed-raced newcomer to national politics almost looks like an accidental hiccup. It is a sign that the political apparatus no longer knows how to respond to the nation’s challenges. What America is waiting for is a profound renewal to heal its cultural malaise. Both candidates embody the quest for what historian Arthur Schlesinger once called “the vital center.” A return to a sense of proportion and cohesion for the country around a new American project that has two faces, one that’s internal and the other International.
America is at a turning point. As at other times in its history, it must reinvent a social contract and a global strategy. To accomplish this re-invention, McCain and Obama are condemned to fight on the ground of progressivism
. The difficulty is that this invention was the work of a Republican and its full realization occurred under a Democrat. The first, Theodore Roosevelt, is the hero of John McCain; the second, Franklin Roosevelt, is an icon of the Democrats.
With an interminable war on their hands in Iraq and Afghanistan and threats that its overwhelming military power hasn’t managed to contain, America feels that its role in the world must be rethought. Never has America been so unpopular. Relation with the rest of the world will be the unavoidable issue in this election. But America suffers another malaise which it shares with other developed economies regarding the created class and globalization. American capitalism is changing; undermining the equilibrium created by Theodore’s Square Deal and erected on a grand scale by Franklin’s New Deal twenty years later.
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