There isn’t much new happening locally (except for a mouse’s head at the Mater Dei canteen – the question is, where did the rest of him go? Yeelch!).

But the latest developments in the US Presidential campaign are certainly interesting.

Those whose image of Americans is the white trash and ghetto Mamas on Jerry Springer (who for some perverse reason seem compelled to flash their mammoth proportions whenever they feel they need to make a point) should log onto YouTube and listen to two recent speeches.

The speech made by Barack Obama when accepting his party’s nomination as the Democratic candidate, and the one made by Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for Vice President, at her party’s convention.

While many feel that Mrs Palin was chosen purely (and cynically) because of her gender now that Hillary Clinton is out of the race, there is no doubt that she is a sharp cookie and she easily outshone John McCain.

The calculated move to tap into “the female vote” has not gone down well with many women. “Do they think we’re going to change our politics simply because we’ve been presented with another female?” was one woman’s annoyed retort.

Certainly, her conservative right-wing views are not my cup of tea.

But listening to Sarah Palin, with her firm voice and dry wit, as she made subtle little digs at “our opponent” with her eyes twinkling behind stylish spectacles, it is hard not to admire this woman. Without having to go through the gruelling process of trudging from state to state like the presidential candidates to win the primaries, she seems to have come out of nowhere and now here she is, potentially in line for the second highest office in the United States. That alone must be galling for Hillary, who frankly always struck me as being a bit too intense and high-wired.

At first there were lots of jokes about Sarah Palin because she was the governor of Alaska (population 670,000 – virtually a town, in American terms), and because of her lack of experience in Washington. But the only people laughing during her speech were those laughing with her, as she came up with some priceless quotes.

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organiser’, except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening. We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.”

Describing herself as a former “hockey Mom” (i.e. a mother who spends her time ferrying her children to hockey practice and other after school activities), she paused and delivered a joke that is sure to become a classic.

“What’s the difference between a pit bull and a hockey Mom? … Lipstick.”

Executed with the precise timing of a born speaker, she spoke so well I stopped rushing around getting ready for work with half an ear tuned to the news as I usually do, and actually sat down to watch it.

“But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... when the roar of the crowd fades away ... when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot – what exactly is our opponent’s plan?”

It was the mix of humour and political acumen that made her so interesting to listen to.

She chipped carefully away at Obama’s image (without once mentioning him by name) and the crowd loved it: “In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change. They’re the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners, or on self-designed presidential seals.”

I could go on and on about her speech, as she spoke intelligently and with spunk about America’s need to lessen its dependence on overseas oil and other national issues.

But why am I going on and on about her speech? It’s because we are rarely privileged enough to hear good oration by our own politicians. When was the last time there was a phrase which became legendary in its own time? I’m not talking about “hbieb tal-hbieb” or “finanzi fis-sod” but more on the lines of “Malta l-ewwel u qabel kollox”.

For all his misguided politics in his later years, when Mintoff spoke, especially in the early years, people listened.

What we need to hear in speeches is eloquence and inspiration rather than banalities and derogatory remarks. Phrases which have meaning rather than meaningless slogans.

What I noticed about the Democratic and Republican conventions was that the audience was there to listen and be inspired and not to clap mindlessly every time they hear the speaker’s voice rise to fever pitch, giving them the cue to burst into applause and chanting.

It is refreshing to hear politicians disagree completely with each other’s politics and yet remain respectful. During his speech, Obama was careful to pay tribute to McCain’s war record, but then criticised him in that elegantly poised way of his.

“Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush was right more than 90 per cent of the time?”

Apart from agreeing with Obama’s policies, I was happy when he was chosen to be the Democratic candidate because he is so well spoken and highly educated. Bush (apart from his appalling presidential decisions) has completely battered the image of Americans throughout the world with his fumbling, incoherent speeches. The man comes across like an illiterate fool and when he was re-elected I will never forgot that infamous Daily Mirror headline “How can 59,054,087 Americans be so dumb”?

The person who is the Head of State of a country automatically ends up defining that country…which is why Berlusconi and Sarkozy make their countrymen cringe every time they say something inappropriate.

And that is why, on hearing John McCain giving his acceptance speech, it was, as the saying goes “like déjà vu all over again”. His whining voice has an uncanny resemblance to Bush’s and he lacked conviction, clearly reading from the teleprompter and not really feeling what he was saying.

Obviously, it takes more than great speeches and a gift for delivering just the right turn of phrase to make a good head of state, but certainly, the ability to communicate, to instil hope in people who have become jaded by too much rhetoric and too many broken promises, is the first step.

“It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care. It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it.” Obama said. So simply put, but so precisely on target.

Many Americans are no longer interested in the gung-ho warmongering so favoured by Bush, and now McCain (and Palin, whose oldest son is leaving for Iraq). They want their own country to be put into order, and this is what Obama is offering them. He gave examples people could relate to, about ordinary people not having health care and losing their jobs, and always comparing them with episodes from his own life.

And yes, it might seem schmaltzy to those who are weary of politicians trying to pull at their heartstrings, but at this point in time in America, it is obvious that Obama is the right man at the right time in history.

What’s in a name?

Just in case you thought Joseph and Michelle Muscat’s choice of names for their twins were a bit over-the-top, well with Sarah Palin’s family you would have had a field day. Her children are called Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig.

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