Macharia Gaitho
21 October 2008
column
Bucks County, Pennsylvania — From the moment one walks down the steps into the basement that is the John McCain presidential campaign headquarters for Bucks County in Pennsylvania, the bunker mentality is obvious. The door is made of heavy solid sheet metal, much like what is common in Kenya as 'burglar proofing' but very rare in the US.
Then one sees the handwritten signs pasted all around the walls: 'Fight Biased Media', 'Fight Socialism', 'Fight Intimidation', 'This is our Country'.
The picture is completed by a campaign staff defensive and wary of strangers. Talking to them one gets the impression that they are indeed in a state of siege.
Polls show Republican McCain trailing Democratic rival Barack Obama 41 percent to 47 percent in Bucks County, a surprising result in the wealthy, predominantly white suburban area just outside the loud and boisterous city of Philadelphia.
The downcast mood at the McCain campaign office is very different from the buzz evident at the Obama campaign office in the same County.
The Obama office is a beehive of activity. Campaign workers and volunteers of all ages are busy on the phone banks calling up potential voters to ensure their commitment.
Both campaigns are using voter registration databanks to reach as many voters as they can, and both say they have made upwards of a half million phone calls in the past fortnight and made a quarter million home visits.
Pennsylvania is listed one of the few remaining swing states that could determine the make-up of the electoral college that eventually elects the US president, but it leans heavily towards Mr Obama who enjoys a healthy 13 percent lead over Mr McCain.
Bucks County just to the north of the teeming Philadelphia metropolis is one the typical suburban areas across the US that have become the refuge of wealthy white families getting away from the bustling and noisy cities.
From the demographics alone, it should be solid McCain territory, but all over the countries those are the areas that are tilting towards Mr Obama and giving him the edge in the so-called battleground states.
The siege mentality evident at the McCain campaign headquarters in Bucks County reflects the shift. The campaign staffers and volunteers seem dispirited, listless and angry, accusing the media of being biased and earnestly repeating the slurs against Mr Obama that are becoming a staple of their message.
Initially it was about Mr Obama being a closet Muslim. The latest, being pushed hard over the past week by Mr McCain--himself despite earlier indications that he would abandon negative campaigns--is that Mr Obama is a socialist.
The messages, aimed principally at White America and full of coded racial slurs, aim to depict the democratic candidate as a dangerous radical who is not a 'pure' American. The 'this is our country' rallying cry says it all. It suggest that the US is not Mr Obama's country.
The frustration is that so far the message appears not to have hit home as intended. The spectre of 'socialist', 'Muslim', 'non-American' -according to the slurs--on the verge of becoming the first African-American President of the US has not scared the majority of White voters into turning decisively against Mr Obama.
At a meeting last week with the community leaders in Bucks County, elderly and wealthy pillars of the local establishment who occupy their free time with the Rotary Club and volunteer activities, it becomes clear how the tide has turned. Many of them confess that they have always voted Republican, but now they are looking for change from what they describe as the economic ravage of the Bush years.
The big question however, is whether the increasingly virulent McCain message will cast doubts about Mr Obama that will in the remaining fortnight or so tilt that vote the other way.
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