THE DEMOCRATS certainly had a good convention in Denver this week, but John McCain's inspired choice of Sarah Palin as his running partner yesterday shows just how tough a battle Barack Obama has on his hands as the campaign proper for the White House begins.
The 44-year-old governor of Alaska is an excellent foil to Mr McCain as a personable, plain-talking woman, a mother of five children and a doughty practitioner of Republican policies on cheaper, smaller government, especially as they relate to US energy independence. Her selection shows how important it is to balance personality and policy in this contest and how well-timed announcements upstage and deflect attention from the other side, alongside the deeper currents of gender, race and class clearly animating both major parties in their appeal to voters.
Mr Obama's fine speech to the closing session of the convention accepting his nomination as Democratic candidate concentrated on detailed policy proposals affecting ordinary American citizens and how he will implement them. This brought his campaign closer to attacking Mr McCain's policies rather than forging the party unity required after the bruising 18 months battle with Ms Hillary Clinton for the nomination. The Democratic convention was dominated by the need to overcome that contest. While Mr Obama's choice of Senator Joe Biden as running mate strengthens his ticket's foreign policy appeal and its attractions for blue- collar workers, Mr McCain's choice seems bound to reopen debate on whether Mr Obama should instead have chosen Ms Clinton.
The Democratic campaign has mobilised women in unprecedented numbers and this Republican ploy is calculated to attract some of them, along with independent women, to their camp. Ms Palin will of course be subjected to intense scrutiny now, with a focus on her conservative views on abortion and religion. Such a focus could counteract any such trend. But this choice certainly keeps the gender issue alive. The race question will also endure, subliminally if not explicitly. This week Mr Obama and his wife Michelle proudly and firmly put their black inheritance in the context of the American dream of social mobility through individual and family effort. His nomination is a historic achievement enabled most of all by his ability to express this experience in a universal message of hope and change.
Putting flesh on that message will now depend centrally on making it appeal to the great constituencies of blue-collar and middle-class Americans whose incomes have stagnated or shrunk during the Bush years. They are quite uncertain about their future and the continuing credibility of that dream. Mr Obama must convince them that reduced taxation is compatible with greater social protection and employment. The election is his to lose, given the high dissatisfaction with Mr Bush. But Mr McCain showed yesterday how strong an opponent he is. The contest is wide open.