Photograph courtesy of Flickr user shazam791.

Of all the bizarre and interesting features of the 2008 US presidential election, here’s one you may not have noticed: it’s the first time both tickets have been topped by a serving senator. It guarantees that America’s 44th president will be the third to assume the job from a Senate seat, after Warren Harding and John F. Kennedy.

This goes some way, I think, to explaining the soporific and choreographed nature of the televised debates so far, both of which have been dominated by Washington policy-speak. Barack Obama and John McCain aren’t fans of fast or improvised argument. For cut-and-thrust spectacle, the U.S. Senate makes the House of Commons look like the Battle of Thermopylae. Here, for example, is Obama asking an eight-minute question, Jim Naughtie-style. It’s his day job.

Both men are hopelessly long-winded. Both men are aloof and unpersonable. Both men have no experience in the executive branch of government. This plays into Obama’s hands — he is, plainly, the smoother, slicker speechifier. Of the four names on the ticket, Sarah Palin, boss of 29 000 employees, is the only one with executive experience.

This is one reason why McCain is unable to land a knockout blow against one of the most nebulous and inexperienced presidential candidates in history. It’s increasingly clear that Obama is phenomenally lucky to have this GOP nominee to run against. McCain is a nice guy trying to run a punchy underdog campaign — but its effect is limited because he and Obama are cut from the same cloth. The race is crying out for a Reagan figure: someone who can say, “I’m a safe pair of hands — here’s my evidence.” Instead, astonishingly, Americans must choose from two senators: a rookie and a maverick. Thought for the day: how electable would Rudy Giuliani be right now?

Filed under: barackobama, democracy, election2008, johnmccain, jonathanbirch, uspolitics on October 8th, 2008