The US presidential election may be barely two months away, but the atmosphere at the Democratic Convention in Denver bristled with “barely concealed contempt” between supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, said Simon Heffer in The Daily Telegraph. Clinton’s supporters have taken “further umbrage” since Joe Biden, the 65-year-old gaffe-prone Delaware senator, was picked as Obama’s vice-presidential running mate. Some 27% of them now say they will vote for John McCain.
Hillary’s supporters may be furious, but an intriguing theory has surfaced that the Obamas and Clintons came to a mutual agreement, said Peter McKay in the Daily Mail. The Clintons would have become the “White House neighbours from Hell” for the Obamas, and from the Clinton point of view, accepting the vice-presidential slot would have “killed Mrs Clinton’s presidential hopes”. Whatever she may say publicly, Hillary’s ambition of becoming America’s first woman president is best served by a John McCain victory. Her convention speech was a “show stopper”, said Janet Daley in The Daily Telegraph, but it was also about her. She mentioned Obama’s name ten times, and said the mandatory words: “He is my candidate”. But her “pledge of undying commitment was to her party”. She said almost nothing about Obama’s leadership abilities, expressed the hope that he would follow her programme and described McCain as “my colleague and friend”.
The week’s events in Denver are “fast turning into a critical moment” for Obama’s campaign, said Paul Harris in The Observer. Obama and McCain are “virtually tied in the polls”. One explanation for the failure of Obama’s campaign to achieve “lift off” is race. His support among blacks, Hispanics and young voters is as high as it is likely to get. To win in November, he needs to persuade white, working class and elderly Americans to back him in much greater numbers. That may be beyond him, said Mary Dejevsky in The Independent. Michelle Obama acquitted herself “magnificently” in her speech, but for all the boasts about the American “melting pot”, the divide between white and black is an “insidious fact of American life”. But Obama has bigger problems than skin colour, said Matt Bai in The New York Times. He represents a “stark generational shift” and has “remarkably little governing experience”, almost none in foreign policy.
The appointment of a foreign policy expert, Biden, was designed to give him some muscle in that department, said Heffer, but it’s the economy that really matters. Worryingly, neither Biden nor Obama have any expertise in economic affairs, says McKay. Since US sub-prime mortgages have “all but ruined our banking system”, that is not comforting for the UK either. Both candidates must be much clearer on policy, said The New York Times. In his speech on Thursday night, Obama will have his chance to let 120m voters know what he means by change. Americans need to hear how he plans to halt the economy’s frightening downward spiral, extricate troops from Iraq and salvage the situation in Afghanistan. Obama can inspire hope, but to win the presidency, he will have to make it clear where he wants to take the nation.