I think I have finally worked out what, at some subliminal level, has been nagging at me about the Obama and McCain campaigns. At the superficial level, what's been visible from the UK, at least, is that the McCain team have been far readier to revert to negative messaging about their opponent. That comes across particularly starkly in the UK because it's a comparatively rare tactic over here.
That wasn't it, though. It was more what the candidates' statements said about their motivation for seeking the top job. Now, I admit, this is an entirely subjective conclusion, reached a long way from the action by someone with a very sketchy view of what's going on, but when you look at Obama's statements they are often something like this one, from a Wall Street Journal OpEd:
"Tomorrow, I ask you to write our nation's next great chapter... If you give me your vote, we won't just win this election - together, we will change this country and change the world."
It almost smacks of Kennedy's iconic "Ask not...".
McCain, on the other hand, was quoted in these terms from a Sunday evening speech in New Hampshire:
"So again I come to the people of New Hampshire, Republicans, independents, Democrats, Libertarians, vegetarians, all of them. I am asking you again to let me go on one more mission."
It's almost as if he wants that last mission in order to tick some personal goal of his own list, rather than to do something, for their benefit, on behalf of the voters.
Still, at least he's recycling. He used the same "one last mission" appeal back in 2000. It won him New Hampshire then, but that wasn't enough to take him all the way.
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