So politics have gotten rather weird on both sides of the border.
I'll start in the US, where the fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continues. To me, the choice is simple - I could never let myself vote for a Republican, so McCain is already out. Between the two Democrat possibilities, I would go with Obama in a heartbeat.
Why? Well, it's not so much "yay, Obama" as "boo, Hilary". The fact is, Hilary should have dropped out of the race after losing eleven straight states. Had it been the other way around, she would have been able to bully Obama into doing just that - but because Obama's actually a nice guy and doesn't invoke the normal cynical feelings about all politicians, he's willing to let Hilary make up her own mind about what she wants to do.
Then, on Tuesday, Hilary won big enough that they're basically back in a tie - but I've actually heard one of her advisors say, in exactly the context I present it here, that Hilary can not possibly win on any important issues, so they basically have to make something up and run a smear campaign.
Some people complain that Obama isn't making that many promises...well, let's ask the Canadian federal Conservatives, or Ontarian Liberals, or any other government in North America how well they've done at keeping the dozens of promises they made befor coming into office. Obama is smart enough to realize that he shouldn't promise something he can't deliver - for example, he's not going to promise that he'll find new jobs for all the former automotive workers being laid off unless he knows where those jobs will come from. His detractors will then point out that if Obama doesn't know exactly how he'll solve these problems, he should figure it out right now - but the fact is that he's in the middle of a campaign, and he doesn't have any time to spend on anything else until he's at least got the Democratic nomination. So why didn't he figure this stuff out before he decided to run for President? Maybe because, as a senator, he was too busy actually getting stuff done?
One final point on Obama - I can guarantee that out of the three remaining major candidates, he would do the most, by far, to enhance America's reputation on the international stage just by being elected.
Meanwhile, Canada is dealing with its latest "he said, she said" affair, only with a nice twist in the form of a libel lawsuit.
Chuck Cadman was a former Conservative MP who was kicked out of their caucus. In May 2005, a crucial vote was coming up in the House of Commons - if Cadman voted with the Liberals, they would stay in power, otherwise they wouldn't. Obviously both parties were extremely interested in knowing how Cadman would vote, but were hamstrung by bribery laws into not being able to really influence him in any way.
Cadman had terminal cancer at the time, and it was fairly obvious that he didn't have long left to live. Allegedly, two Conservative strategists met with Cadman and offered him a million-dollar life insurance policy if he voted with them. Cadman denied that he was ever offered anything, but his wife - herself a Conservative - recently said that this was not true, and he was offered the life insurance.
Liberal leader Stephane Dion has spoken about this as if he is 100% certain it happened (which is definitely what I'm leaning towards seeing as it was his Conservative wife who first mentioned it), which has resulted in Stephen Harper suing Dion for libel.
What Harper doesn't seem to understand is that nobody ever suggested he was personally responsible for the alleged offer; nobody thought Harper called Cadman as said "Yo, Chuckster, Stevie here. You vote with us and we give you family a million bucks, dig?". But the unstated point was that, whether Harper was personally responsible or not, he is the public leader of the Conservatives, and needs to take accountability - which, if I remember right was one of their main talking points in the last election - for the actions of any Conservatives. Had he said "we'll get to the bottom of this, one way or the other, but I really don't think we'll find anything", there wouldn't have been a problem. But he chose to defend himself and himself only, and it could really come back to haunt him if it turns out such an offer was made.
Something more intersting coming this weekend, promise.
--Ryan
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