The anarchists and peaceniks have been held at bay today in downtown St Paul, home of the Republican National Convention. After Monday's riots when 286 protesters were arrested and lots of property was smashed, the ranks of the law officers have swol
len perceptibly. There were only 10 arrests today. The tiny local Minneapolis/St Paul police force sent out an SoS for help and 5000 additional Federal Officers, National guardsmen and state police were flown in from as far away as Texas and California to lend a hand. Meanwhile the Minnesota courts will have to deal with the bizarre task of holding trials for 38 of the arrested rioters who each gave their name as John or Jane Doe!
I attended a morning session featuring Congressman Adam Putnam who represents Florida's 12th District and was elected 8 years ago as the youngest Member of the House at 26. He told us that on his first day he entered Congress after his election in 2000, a policeman stopped him in the hallowed chambers and said "Where do you think you're going son? Then, realising his mistake, said "Oh, you must be the new kid from Florida!"
Congressman Putnam was fairly downbeat about the Republican Party's chances as far as the elections to Congress and the Senate are concerned, predicting a loss of between 3 to 5 seats in the Senate and a devastating 20 to 40 seats in the House, despite the fact that Congress has only a 9% approval rating in the polls, which is 20% less than when the Democrats took control from the Republicans just over two and a half years ago. But it is this depressing background that makes the presidential campaign so interesting. McCain should really be languishing ten to fifteen percentage points behind Obama in the polls, but he is almost neck and neck. Putnam said that the key election issues are certainly oil and gas prices, the economy and the war in Iraq, with environmental concerns and climate change bottom of the list.
In the afternoon I attended a small gathering of foreign MPs to hear a brief speech from Dr Henry Kissinger. I thought that at the age of 85, he would be yet another of the dinosaur old guard who supported John McCain, himself no spring chicken at 72. In the event, Dr Kissinger spoke for 45 minutes without notes, delivering one of the clearest and most visionary accounts of global politics that I have ever heard. It was breathtaking. His clarity of mind and breadth of knowledge is amazing. He is also fantastically funny and had the audience laughing and eating out of his hand. At one point I asked him if Europe should support the Lisbon Treaty. He said that he had once attended a meeting in the Congressional Library in Washington D.C. when former French President Giscard d'Estaing had tried to explain the intricacies of the European Constitution. "I have never seen an audience so stupefied in my life," he said. "I think I would rather leave the Lisbon Treaty up to the people of Europe." He was then pressed on his famous statement that "In a crisis you never know the phone number of whom to get in touch with in the EU." Kissinger said he couldn't remember ever saying such a thing, but that it was a good statement and he was therefore happy to claim it as his own. "The problem is," he said, "not what the phone number is, but what someone says when they answer it."
In a highly prescient statement, he said that Europe was undergoing the transition from a position of sovereign nation states to a federal union and that the member states had divested their traditional alliances without yet forging a new European alliance. "Their past has not yet caught up with their future" he thought. This has de-stabilised the age-old Trans-Atlantic relationship, he said, and it is vitally necessary to re-establish it without delay.
Back inside the Convention Hall, the happy throngs of Republican Party activists had gathered for their penultimate gig. All were holding their breath in excitement for the first-ever appearance on a national platform of the Governor of Alaska – Sarah Palin – newly appointed Vice Presidential candidate for Senator John McCain and feisty working mother of 5 children. The warm-up act was left to former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, who gave a barnstorming performance attacking Barack Obama and his record every inch of the way. Reminding the super-patriotic audience that "McCain has proved his commitment to America with his blood", Giuliani said "For 4 days in Denver the Democrats were afraid to say the words 'Islamic terrorism' in case they insulted somebody. Who were they afraid to insult? The only people they'd insult would be Islamic terrorists."
Giuliani went on to lavish praise on Sarah Palin and as a forest of placards bearing slogans such as "BIG GAME HUNTERS FOR PALIN" and "PALIN POWER" blossomed across the giant auditorium, the lady herself strode confidently onto the stage. The next 45 minutes were electrifying and left me wondering how on earth John McCain had unearthed this talented mayor of an Alaskan village and thrust her onto the national and international stage. Her performance was flawless. She played to the audience as if she'd been doing it for years. She even departed from her script at one point and gesturing to a group of women waving placards which said "HOCKEY MUMS FOR SARAH" she gave the thumbs up and wise-cracked "The only difference between a hockey mum and a pit bull is the lipstick!." The roof almost lifted off with the roars of approval. Again and again she brought the enraptured audience to its feet, like when she said "Some of the media have criticised me for my lack of experience in Washington. Well I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion, I'm going to serve the good people of the USA." Governor Palin finished by saying "There are some politicians who use change to promote their careers. There are others, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."
McCain's choice of this unknown, female Governor from the backwoods of Alaska, was being widely punted in the American media as the biggest risk in his risk-strewn career. But it is, in my strong opinion, a risk that has paid off in spades. Sarah Palin rose to the challenge. She was brilliant. The Democrats must be shaking in their shoes.
• Struan Stevenson is Vice President of the ruling EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament. He is representing his group at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis/Saint Paul.
The full article contains 1143 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
