The Daily Novel

And now for something entirely different……. A short while ago John McCain produced the biggest surprise so far in this presidential campaign, by choosing Sarah Palin, the 44 year old Governor of Alaska as his running mate. it is probable that far more Americans have heard of Kentish Town’s favourite comedian, Michael Palin, than have heard of Sarah.

She has been Governor of Alaska for just two years. Alaska is one of America’s newest states and almost as remote from Washington as Hawaii. And in this campaign the Republicans have been using Obama’s time spent in Hawaii as part of their attack stategy to brand him as someone with little experience of the centres of power. None of the heavy weight media commentators I have read rated Sarah Palin as a serious possibility.

However, Russ Limburgh the right-wing news pundit has been running an energetic ландшафтDraft Palin campaign. She brings youth and charm to the ticket. And she has been very popular in her two-year Governorship.

She is a staunch conservative on all those issues close to the hearts of right-wing Christian fundamentalists who have kept George Bush in power for eight years. According to Limburg:

Her stances on gay marriage, capital punishment, abortion and gun control will appeal to many of the conservatives McCain turned off and into Romney’s arms. She could make them feel better about coming out to vote for McCain.

And, of course, she may pick up some of the women who would have voted for Hilary Clinton, despite the fact that her policies are at the other end of the political spectrum.

It is a bold and brave choice. But it has its downside.

The announcement was made on McCain’s 72nd birthday. He looks in great shape but I have an old friend who tripped over the telephone cord in his study and broke two of his knees at exactly the same age. All of us oldies have brittle bones. So Sarah Palin will truly be a heart beat away from the White House if McCain wins.

This will make it much more difficult for the Republicans to attack Obama for his lack of experience, when their vice-presidential candidate has even less experience. And it will enable Obama to build on the attack strategy that he used in his acceptance speech. He was somewhat unfair to brand McCain, who has taken some notable independent stances, as 90 per cent George Bush’s twin. It will be much easier now he has chosen who is a true Bush sister.

Her experience of foreign policy appears to be zilch.

But she undoubedly has charisma. And the experience of being a Governor, even for a short time, is better training for being the nation’s chief executive, than being a Senator.

And she looks to me to be an extremely feisty woman. She is tough-minded but combines it with an entirely feminine charm.

Obama has based his campaign on the American dream, echoing the Martin Luther King ‘I have a dream speech’ of 1963. And raising a chord with all those American novels which demonstrated that the dream has not yet been realised.

But the truth is there is more than one American dream.

As I wrote yesterday this election gives Americans a clear choice between two radically different policies. Sadly to some Americans Luther King’s dream is their nightmare.

Photo: Matt Sullivan/Reuters

In the last two days Barack Obama has demonstrated beyond all doubt that he is ready and capable of leading America. On Wednesday the unity of the Democratic Party was restored with a remarkable speech by the former President Bill Clinton who in the space of a few minutes healed his own psyche as well as the splits in his party. Gone was the disgruntled Bill of the campaign trail. He began by expressing his deep disappointment that his candidate, Hilary Clinton, had lost the battle for the nomination. It was candid expression of his own feelings. He did not have to add that he was also disappointed because her election would have given him another four years in the White House. He then went on praise Obama’s character and abilities. It was an unmistabeable handing of the torch of leadership to the next generation. Both Clintons stood smiling, cheering and clapping as the convention moved to elect Obama by acclamation. It showed a quite exceptional generosity of spirit on the part of both Clintons. And it came on top of the endorsement by Senator Edward Kennedy, who got up from his sick bed to throw his weight behind Obama on the opening day of the conference.

Obama could not hoped for anything from the leaders of his won party.

He then went on demonstrate what he can do, in what many people thought was such a move so bold that it was rash. Instead of making his speech to 15,000 Democratic party activists in the Convention Hall he booked a football stadium with space for 75,000 people. He erected a stage, which was in fact a mock-up of the White House. But many media commentators, egged on by the Republicans, said that it looked like a Greek temple and that Obama was suffering from that well known disease the Greeks called hubris.

The only Presidential candidate was has done this before was John F Kennedy in 1959. Kennedy’s bold move was rated a success, even though he filled only half the 30,000 capacity. In fact, according to every report I have read 84,000 people turned up. I still find this astonishing. It does not prove that Obama can run the country but it sure shows that he has a remarkable capacity for organisation as well as inspiration.

And although he is an avid user of the new techoogies, web sites, emailing and texting as well television, it shows that he understands that face to face is still the best way to win hearts and minds and votes.

As promised the speech concentrated on the economy. And, as also he follewed the advice of those of his team, who had been urging him to attack McCain. Which he did by making a portraying him as an honest man who did not understand the need for America to change the policies of the last eight years and asserting that McCain was 90 per cent in favour of the policies of George W Bush.

He made his policies clear, but did not show how he was going to achieve them. He made the extraordinary claim that he was going to free America from imported oil in ten years. It is a claim that may come back to haunt him. But maybe it is possible for America to switch to renewable energy. After America has plenty of wide open spaces and mountains for wind turbines and many hot deserts ideal for solar energy.

But he made his politiccal position even clearer than it was before. He will help the poor and tax the rich. He reminded Democrats they were the party of Roosevelt as well as Kennedy and Clinton. Roosevelt’s New Deal was possible because Wall Street had been crippled by the Great Crash of 1929 and by the ensuing long depression. In 2008, although the American economy is in very poor shape, Wall Street and many big businesses are doing exceptionally well.

In this election Americans are being offered a very clear choice between the right and left. I imagine that McCain will have no trouble at all raising the millions he needs to fight his campaign.

The question is no longer whether Obama is ready to be President.

It is whether America is ready for a President like Barack Obama.

(My link for Obama’s complete speech is to the Huffington Post. None of the main newsaper and BBC sites I checked this morning had the full speech on video, although they did carry the prepared text circulated a few hours before the speech was delivered. But I recommend that readers watch the complete video.)

Much of the media comment today on the first day of the Democratic Convention in Denver is about whether Hilary Clinton’s supporters will get over their personal disappointment and throw their support behind Barack Obama’s bid for the US Presidency. But I was utterly mesmerised by the speech made by Michelle Obama. She spoke clearly and confidently. What she said, and how she said it, was the best possible response to the vicious campaign against her by the Repbulican press which has tried to protray her as un-American and consumed with anger.

She emphasised her role as daughter, sister and wife, but showed herself to be light years away from a subservient spouse. She delivered a strong and coherent political message. She threw down the gauntlet to her critics. Her theme was she, and her husband, embody the American dream. She offered Americans the chance to live that dream by voting for a husband and wife team brought up on the back streets of Chicago.

How the Clintonistas will take this remains to be seen. But surely some of them will realise that a vote for Obama will put a very strong minded woman in the White House, and one who is likely to be a different kind of First Lady than any other in US history.

One of the question marks about Hilary Clinton was to do with how husband Bill would play his role as the first First Gentleman in US history. There were fears that he would have been unable to resist the temptation to be the back street driver, dictating policy in the bedroom.

This election offers Americans a choice between candidates radically different in personality, social and economic background and policies. Barack Obama has continually played down race in his campaign, unsurprisingly since he is actually half white. Michelle’s high profile speech today is a reminder that she is one hundred per cent black. But also one hundred per cent American.

In recent weeks Obama’s lead in the opinion polls has dwindled away to nothing. No-one is quite sure why. Several media commentators have speculated that conscious or un-conscious racism may be a factor. I am not so sure. But I shall be watching carefully to see what the polls show about the reactions of Americans to Michelle’s speech.

Not a few of Britain’s stay-at-home holiday makers came to Charmouth, instead of flying to Spain. They were not disappointed, as my pic demonstrates. Our own visitor, however, needed her walking boots to get to our front door, as my next picture demonstrates.

The work on the front drive is likely to go on for a further two or three weeks. My neighbours have been amazingly tolerant of the noise and the debris. Neil, over the road, who has a grandstand view from his front window, proposes that as part of our new look we should install a sculpture to enhance the new look. Instead of a garden gnome he suggests a frog.

The newspapers on both sides of the pond generally gave Barack Obama’s choice of Joe Biden, the 65 year old senator from Delaware, as his vice-presidential running mate, the thumbs up. The London Sunday Times headlined their story:

Barack Obama opts for ‘bare knuckle fighter Joe Biden

But when you read the story you find that it is in fact favourable to Biden. This particular bare knuckle fighter is also the widely respected chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, who has considerable knowledge and experience of the world’s major trouble spots and knows many foreign prime ministers personally.

Obama certainly needs a boost for his campaign. His lead over John McCain in the polls has dwindled away to almost nothing in recent weeks, as McCain has cashed in on American worries about the the threats overseas, particularly the belligerant actions of Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Although he has halted the march of the Russian tanks on the Georgian capital Tibilsi, Russian troops are still on Georgian soil.

And, as the Sunday Times points out, the fight for the President’s job is going to get dirtier and dirtier as the election approaches. According to their reporter, Republican activists are already suggesting ‘Osama bin Biden’ car stickers.

The Mail on Sunday also has a negative headline.

Obama picks senator who ’stole’ Neil Kinnock’s speech as his running mate

This story harks back to 1988 when Biden was forced to abandon his own presidential campaign after it was revealed that his speech highlighting his working class roots was a plagiarism of a speech by Britain’s then Labour leader. But the Mail story goes on to tell readers that Biden and Kinnock are now firm friends. According to the Mail,

Lord Kinnock said last night that the last time they met the senator introduced him to aides by saying: ‘Do you know this guy? He used to be my greatest speechwriter.

The Observer highlights a slip of the tongue by Obama when he introduced Biden to the crowd of 35,000 in Springfield, Illinois yesterday. Obama introduced him as the ‘next President’, before quickly correcting that to ‘the next vice-president of the United States.

The slip, I think, probably does reflect the relationship between the two men. They have become friends since Obama joined the Senate foreign relations committee, but Biden is vastly more experienced. Which suggests that Obama meant what he said when he claimed to want a running mate who would not be a yes person.

The Observer also notes Biden’s impeccable working class credentials and trade union links. Biden is a working class Irish Catholic, still something of a rough diamond, which is a sharp contrast to Obama, whose speeches make it clear that despite his own humble origins he has lived most of his life as a teacher at that most elite of American universities, Harvard. And, now, as in Jack Kennedy’s time, there are still plenty of American voters who distrust ‘eggsheads’.

Most of the papers report that the choice gives some ammunition for McCain, because at the start of this Presidential campaign Biden made a speech in which he characterised Obama as ‘not ready’ to be President and said that a President did not have time for on the job training.

The analysis article in the Washington Post emphasises that Obama’s choice is pragmatic and that it will help Obama get those Hillary Clinton supporters amongst the working classes of the industrial heartlands to the polls. That article also suggests that the choice has a powerful emotional appeal, because both the personal biographries of both men demonstrate that the American dream - that any citizen whatever his or her origins can aspire to become President - is not entirely a myth.

Justin Massingham, a friend of my daughter, dropped in yesterday to do the tenth of his forty swims to raise £40,000 for the National Eczema Society. This most irritating disease blights the lives of around one fifth of children. And as yet nobody has found a cure, although there are some ointments which alleviate it somewhat. His plan was to do the tenth swim at Burton Bradstock. But it took him most of the day to get here from his ninth swim in East Dorset. Two trains and a cycle ride in drizzly rain from Axminster on the A35. By the time we got to Burton Bradstock at 4.30 PM the wind was working itself up to a serious gale. The waves were crashing over the beach. Everyone else was obeying the warning notice about Burton Bradstocks undertow. Justin decided that discretion was the better part of valour so we joined the other holiday makers sheltering from the rain in the beach cafe.

This morning the sun was shining so down we went to Charmouth Beach. By the time we got there the clouds had obliterated the sun and and the waves were big enough to splash over the car park. But in he went through the breakers and managed a half-way decent swim across the bay. Not quite forty minutes.

Our pictures, which I enhanced in Photoshop, demonstrate what a gloomy August we are having. The weather was worse than it was last December when hundreds gathered for the annual Charmouth Christmas Day Swim; in fancy dress not wet suits. But appalling summer weather seems to bring out the best in British people. Lots of mums and dads managing to put on smiles as they herded their kids back to the beach in between the showers. Looking on the bright side. After all there was no need to carry water to fill the moats around the sand castles.

We dispatched Justin from Axminster, where he caught a train to some place in Wiltshire where he is going to swim in a river. You can find out how to sponsor his swim, and help all those kids with eczema, by following this link to his web site. Below is a picture from his site of him with his daughter, Martha, who suffers from eczema.

The Guardian splashes this morning with a story that is bad news for those, like me, who would like to see a change in the leadership of the Labour Party sooner rather than later. It is based on the results of the latest Guardian/ICM opinion poll.

The headline, like most newspaper headlines, leaves no room for doubt.

Change of leader would not help Labour beat Cameron

But if you read the story carefully what the poll results signify is not quite that.

The pollsters asked who would made the best Prime Minister between David Cameron and Gordon Brown and between David Cameron and David Miliband. While it is true that currently Miliband has been the most talked up contender for the crown in the last few weeks, ever since he wrote that article in The Guardian without a single mention of Gordon Brown, it is by no means certain that Miliband would win a Labour Party election. Jack Straw, Alan Johnson, Harriet Harman and Jon Cruddas all have their supporters across the supporter. And there is also the possibility that if the Party decides to have an election some other candidate might emerge, whose name has not been trumpeted by the media. There is no shortage of potential leaders who have ample ministerial experience as well as grass roots support.

The results of the Cameron versus Brown, show 42 per cent for Cameron, 21 per cent for Brown and 23 per cent for neither. Those for Cameron versus Miliband show 40 per cent for Cameron 19 per cent for Miliband and 18 per cent for neither.

So The Guardian headline is justified by the fact that Cameron’s lead over both Brown and Miliband is the same at 21 per cent. But what are we to think about the fact that when asked the Cameron/Miliband question 23 per cent said nothing at all, whereas in response to Cameron/Brown question, only 14 per cent said nothing at all?

First, we can say definitely, that when given a choice between Cameron and a new Labour leader, Cameron’s vote falls from 42 per cent to 40 per cent. We can also say definitely, that the Milibandwagon is an invention of the media; his 19 per cent vote suggests that many people have not even heard that he had a band, still less are prepared to march behind it.

This is not so surprising. Although Miliband holds one of the three most important ministries, and is highly regarded by many Labour MPs and his cabinet colleagues, he has not had a high public profile. Even allowing for that, however, the message is unmistakeable. Not many people see him as a potential prime minister.

It is, however, too soon to write off his canditure. In he first blog I wrote about Miliband well over a year ago, I noted that he comes over as very cerebal. Not two brains, but three brains. This combined with his youth - and he looks even younger than he is - makes him seem closer to a very clever schoolboy rather than a leader of men and women.

If he is serious about his leadership bid he needs to get out more. On to the streets talking to the voters. Not easy to find the time, because his day job demands lots of reading of foreign office papers about the situation in Georgia, in Pakistan, in Iran, etc, etc. The Cold War is definitely back, and it will need all the efforts of European leaders like France’s Nicholas Sarcozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel, to stop it developing into a hot war between the still beligerant George W Bush and the new Stalinism of Vladimir Putin.

The Guardian/ICM poll does, however, contain a glimmer of hope for Labour. Cameron’s Conservatives lead Labour by 15 per cent which would mean a Conservative majority of over a hundred MPs in a general election. But compared with he last Guardian/ICM poll, Labour’s vote is one per cent higher at 29 per cent. The Conservative vote is also one per cent higher. But support for the Lib Dems is unchanged at 19 per cent and support for the other parties is down by one per cent.

To Axminster bright and early to stock up the larder and fill my wallet. Just as I was stuffing the notes in my wallet there was an angry voice in my ear.

‘This machine has been skimmed. Cost me £400.’

A young man pushed past me.

‘Look this is how they do it. See this hole here.’

He pointed to what he said was a hole on the right hand side of the machine and then felt underneath the top left of the machine, which, he said, was where they put the camera. He could not feel anything so he went storming inside to take it up with the Tesco management.

He was back in a trice.

‘They say its nothing to do with them. I have to ring the bank.’

So he wrote down the number of the Royal Bank of Scotland and went off to his car to ring them on his mobile. On his way he told me.

‘It’s them Roumanian scumbags. I wouldn’t have them in the country, even if they weren’t skimming cash machines. I would have them all shot.’

Back at home there was a new worker on my drive, probably in his middle fifties. He had just moved here from Oxford where he had lived for all his life. He loves it here.

‘It’s just like coming home’, he told me.

When I asked him what he meant, he told me that Oxford has changed. Now swamped by immigrants. He’s right of course. A couple of days ago I read an article reporting that nearly all the post-graduate students at Oxford University are foreigners. Which is a direct result of the education policies begun by Margaret Thatcher and continued by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Reduce goverernment spending of education by bumping up the fees for overseas students.

When I told him that I had just moved here from Camden Town, he gave me a friendly smile.

‘Then, you’ll know what I mean.’

I hadn’t the heart to tell him that the Roumanian scumbags were moving in.

After all I feel very much at home here myself. In ethnic terms Dorset is much like the Wolverhampton of my youth before the West Indians arrived. And maybe that’s one reason why it feels like coming home for me too.

But I also feel nostalgic for my twenty-seven years at City University where my days were enlivened by teaching students of every colour from all the major countries of the world.

…..according to one of those round robin emails I received today. It did not promise I would win a million dollars if I sent it on to twenty others. It was written imperfectly, as if it was the revelation of someone who had suddenly discovered a truth. Though it did have a link urging me to sign up for a premium Flicker service costing real money.

So maybe I should post this in Business and Politics as an example of how money is extracted from the unsuspecting in 2008.

But what the hell, I liked what it said. So I sent it to seven names in my contact book. Except that there were not seven names in my contact book, because I have not yet spent the necessary time to restore it, since my motherboard blew up a few months ago and I had to buy a new computer.

Below you can read what Anonymous wrote. Probably American. Or it could be that most people who learn English these days think biscuits are cookies.

Old Age , I decided , is a gift

I am now , probably for the first time in my life , the person I have always
wanted to be. Oh , not my body! I sometime despair over my body , the
wrinkles , the baggy eyes , and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback
by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother!) , but
I don’t agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends , my wonderful life , my loving
family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I’ve aged , I’ve become
more kind to myself , and less critical of myself. I’ve become my own
friend.

I don’t chide myself for eating that extra cookie , or for not making my bed
, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn’t need, but looks so
avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat , to be messy , to be
extravagant.

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they
understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM
and sleep until noon?

I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60&70’s , and if I
, at the same time , wish to weep over a lost love. I will.I will wal k the
beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body , and will dive
into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from
the jet set .

They , too , will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again , some of life is just as
well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

Sure , over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break
when you lose a loved one , or when a child suffers , or even when
somebody’s beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us
strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine
and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray , and
to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face.
So many have never laughed , and so many have died before their hair could
turn silver. As you get older , it is easier to be positive. You care less
about what other people think. I don’t question myself anymore. I’ve even
earned the right to be wrong.

So , to answer your question , I like being old. It has set me free. I like
the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am
still here , I will not waste time lamenting what could have been , or
worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I
feel like it)

FRIENDS FOREVER!

Forward this to at least 7 people and see what happens on your screen . You
will laugh your head off!!!!!!!!!

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Despite the rain and the chilly wind outside and the lure of the Olympic Games inside, many of the hardy inhabitants of Charmouth trooped down The Street to the annual Flower Show. Janet went to look at the flowers. I went to take a few pics of whatever took my fancy.

There were many cups and plates to be won, and some of the regulars, who had no doubt been working on their entries all summer, managed to win two or three.

My own first prizes went to a category meant to evoke the spirit of All that Jazz and Rhapsody in Blue. Given the appalling quality of my pictures I need to tell you that All that Jazz had a miniture jazz band around it.

It was not until I got there that I realised there was a photography competition as well. This is a picture I took yesterday which I might have entered in the Men at Work category. Since I took it the drive has been covered with red scalpel bits, many of which were transferred to the hall floor as I went to and fro. Tomorrow’s visitors will have to leave their shoes at the door Japanese style.