McPolitics

‘Gimme a double-beef Obama burger with a large McCain fries and a supersized Joe Biden shake to go, please. Oh – but hold the Sarah Palin, will ya?’

Across the pond, the long race to the Whitehouse concludes tomorrow (Tuesday). That’s assuming there isn’t massive voter fraud in Florida again, of course. This is without doubt the most closely watched and contested Presidential contest in many years. For good reason, as – to paraphrase our very own Winston Churchill – during such troubled financial times, never have so many in the UK and beyond had a vested interest in the outcome of the deliberations of the (comparatively) American few.

Forget six degrees of separation. We’ve all got a vested interest in which road America decides to head down for the next four years. Financially, culturally and (perhaps most problematically of all) militarily, the implications for the planet are enormous.

So can I just vent for a moment at the tawdry X-Factor-ness of the whole Democrats v Republicans shebang? My PR guy often reminds me that we live in a ‘post-content’ media environment, but the Yanks seem to have upped the ante by entering what is surely some sort of ‘post-policy’ political environment. Detailed policy-making and robust debate have seemingly gone totally AWOL in favour of Oprah-styled personality sound-bites designed to promote brands ‘Obama’ and ‘McCain’ to the widest possible consumer-base. Whilst it’s heartening to see that the projected voter turn-out for election day tomorrow is likely to be the highest in years, I have to ask: When the choice between the candidates is, fundamentally, only one of centrist degree, wherein truly lies the choice?

After voters have bought the t-shirt, lipsticked a pig and/or slapped a bumper sticker on their SUV, what flavour of McPolitics will they order at the U.S. of A’s great democratic drive-through?

For good or ill, we’ll soon see.