People vs. Policies

Only today did I realize the major difference underlying the campaign ideologies of McCain and Obama. Simply put: the McCain campaign believes that politics are about people, whereas the Obama campaign believes that politics are about policies.

This is, of course, overly simplistic. Plus, it is more of a discursive analysis that an indication of any one individual's ideas or motives. But I think that it plays out.

On the McCain side: We have heard again and again how McCain and Palin are a "team of Mavericks," and that McCain has not won the (rhetorical) "Miss Congeniality" award in the Senate. The narrative on Palin is that she shook up politics in Alaska, "taking on her own party." Individualism and individuality are the central themes of this discourse.

Negatively, the same message comes through. The McCain campaign has recently attacked Obama on his personal associations, and has asked, "Who is Barack [Hussein] Obama?" One of McCain's favorite "attacks" is that Obama "votes with his party" more often than McCain does with his. What is important with this charge is not the merit of the policies under question, but rather the use of Senate votes as a test for personal independence. McCain attacks "that one," and mocks Obama for being popular.

On the Obama side: It took me a while to figure out why Obama would continually trot out the lame "This election isn't about me; it's about you." My name isn't on the ballot. I won't have the nuclear codes. But in the stump speech Obama follows this line with a list of federal policies that would impact my life.

Negatively, the same message comes through. For the most part, the Obama campaign has been careful not to impugn McCain's character. They call him a "hero" over and over. When McCain asserted during the third debate that he is "not Bush," Obama pointed out that McCain "voted with Bush" 90% of the time. Obama is not saying that McCain acts like or thinks like Bush. Rather, he and his campaign repeatedly refer to "failed Bush-McCain policies."

There are, of course, counter-examples to this simplistic break-down, such as Obama's description of McCain's behavior as "erratic," and McCain's recent claim that Obama's policies will lead to socialism. But for the most part it rings true.

There's really no other way I can make sense of the discourse surrounding Sarah Palin. Her lack of knowledge of federal-level public policy is a non-issue; instead she pledges to take on lobbyists and corrupt politicians.

This difference in campaign discourse echoes the infuriating, now-cliche trope that people voted for W. each time because they would rather "have a beer with him" than with the other guy.