If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or email alerts. Thanks for visiting!
Even if you have been casually channel surfing over the past few months, I’m sure you have heard these slogans over and over again - “I’ll be ready on day one; experience matters” or the more catchy - “Change you can believe in; yes we can”. Clinton and Obama have been at loggerheads for over an year now vying for the Democratic nomination and even after their 20th debate last night, we still aren’t sure who is the nominee. Hopefully Texas & Ohio (and oh yeah, Vermont & Rhode Island too) should put us over the hill on the slope toward the Presidential contest in November. It doesn’t help that the Republicans have their nominee already picked out notwithstanding the attention-seeking antics of Huckabee.
But is Clinton really getting the nomination now? We have seen her national ratings slip from a lead of more than 30 points to a deficit of over 15 points. Does she really count on the support of the Super Delegates who are only too aware of the backlash from the grassroots if they go against the popular vote? And finally, aren’t her talking points in recent times falling woefully short of substance. For a candidate who derides her opponent for emphasizing rhetoic over substance, she has precious little to offer. Political pundits agree that Clinton and Obama aren’t much different in their policy positions so it all comes down to how they are perceived by the people on basis of their personality, charisma, and tone of the message. Here Obama beats her hands down and even if as some people claim there is lot of hot air, Obama has done his share of public service to merit consideration for the highest office of this land. Of course, you can’t blame him for being born several years after his opponents (in case of McCain, a different era).
His achievements or the lack thereof have been mocked by his opponents especially when one of his supporters, a state Senator choked on national TV but does that mess up mean he has no achievements at all? On the contrary, according to this exhaustive research done by a Daily Kos diarist who started out by not wanting to believe in the Obama hype, shows his U.S. Senate record to be far superior than Clinton. Of course, McCain’s legislative record is in a different league and as I mentioned before, you cannot blame Obama for being in his diapers when McCain was languishing in a Viet Cong prison. Longevity in Washington, as he often likes to point out, doesn’t always mean better experience unless it is backed up with good judgment which he has shown to possess. Of course, I prefer McCain position on NAFTA over either Obama or Clinton who would rather adopt protectionist policies than expand free trade but then it is beyond any President’s prerogative to back pedal on those agreements now even if they profess to do so.
I definitely favor Obama over Clinton and of course, also in the general election because frankly in my opinion, one of the primary problems of the United States has been its loss of public image in the rest of the world. Obama is bang on target, no pun intended, when he mentions a change in not only the foreign policy strategy but also in the mindset that landed the county there in the first place. I often hear animated discussions at my workplace which is a mix of liberals and conservatives (unfortunately the extreme kinds) and cannot help but envy the extent of political dialogue they get to indulge in. I’m sure I would like to hear those conversations again after Texas vote on March 4th which hopefully should give us our Democratic nominee.
by Patrix | on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 4:19 pm | 
Current Affairs, Politicking, United States . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
February 27th, 2008 at 5:13 pm reply
Where was the pun? it slipped my notice.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:00 pm reply
Piker, perhaps I’m over-thinking it. Was talking about the war policy and ‘bang on target’ kinda seemed ironical. Perhaps not.
February 28th, 2008 at 2:22 am reply
please write about intresting stuff life about this article
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html
February 28th, 2008 at 3:58 am reply
first tell u american or indian why do speak as if u belong to america,it is strange what america does to people of your sorts, u start talking as if you are born and bred in usa.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:06 pm reply
Mungreelal, been there, blogged that.
Kesubhai, did you suddenly mistake this blog for Rediff?
February 28th, 2008 at 2:28 pm reply
kindly give link to your blogpost about that dancing girl
February 28th, 2008 at 2:47 pm reply
Kariya, Here it is. Why the sudden interest in that rotating girl?
February 28th, 2008 at 4:35 pm reply
http://thepiratebay.org/search/ArcView/0/99/0
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3421242/ESRI_ArcGIS_Desktop_9.1
download and pratice your heart content not only arcview also all other esri products
February 28th, 2008 at 4:50 pm reply
Kempana, thanks but I have access to legal versions.
February 28th, 2008 at 4:53 pm reply
that becuase i wanted to know your opinion i could not get her to turn anticlock all the time i could see her turn clock i wonder why the article says “Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise……”
anyways i am right minded person though
February 28th, 2008 at 6:08 pm reply
Kariya, oh ok! I can see her go only in the clockwise direction and cannot make her go the other way as some claim to.
February 28th, 2008 at 6:39 pm reply
it shows 4.53pm on my last comment how come? here it was not 4.53pm can you make comment posting realtime as per commentors location
February 28th, 2008 at 7:48 pm reply
Kariya, sorry! The time on a blog can only be set to one specific location. In this case, it is set to CST i.e. my time zone.
February 28th, 2008 at 10:37 pm reply
Hah! This was like the MOST arbit comment thread I’ve seen in a long time! :)
I just pissed myself laughing.
I mean, in Rediff you are prepared for such eventualities, but here?! :D
February 29th, 2008 at 6:00 am reply
dude i need to give a presentation on India to goras in my company can you lead me to a good info
February 29th, 2008 at 11:20 am reply
Piker, Sigh! If my blog is attracting Rediff’s readership, I’m sure that’s not a good thing. Sometimes I wonder if responding only encourages them.
indian, don’t try; you just might hurt yourself.