It looked as though all was lost for Senator Barack Obama, just a few weeks back. How he faught back. He won very convincingly in North Carolina winning nealy 93% of the Afican-American vote and nearly 40% of the rest of the state. Those who said that Obama can win only small and inconsequential states will have to reassess their early opinions. Even in Indianna, the Lake County votes have still not been counted as I write and it is likely that Obama may even win there. Hillary Clinton has not w...
Race as a political issue exploded in a big way due to the indiscreet sermons of the pastor of the United Trinity Church, Rev Jermaiah Wright. The US media is aghast at the observation of the pastor that racism is alive and truly well in the USA. The liberal media that has thrived on the general atmosphere of political correctness is unable or unwilling to face up to the reality of racism in the social and political life of the USA. Senator Barack Obama gave a speech in Philadelphia in which he ...
Race as a political issue exploded in a big way due to the indiscreet sermons of the pastor of the United Trinity Church, Rev Jermaiah Wright. The US media is aghast at the observation of the pastor that racism is alive and truly well in the USA. The liberal media that has thrived on the general atmosphere of political correctness is unable or unwilling to face up to the reality of racism in the social and political life of the USA. Senator Barack Obama gave a speech in Philadelphia in which he ...
In politics it does not always pay to play fair and square and by now the Illinois senator, Barack Obama, must have realised thatrunning a positive civilised campaign against the likes of Bil and Hillary Clinton does not yeild the desired results. The senator himself blames the "kitchen sink" campaign of Hillary and her surrogate number 1, Bill Clinton. I think the camapign was far far worse. Take the 3 a.m. telephone advert, for example, it insuniates that Obama does not have the necessar...
The US Secretary of Defense, Bill Gates shares a quality with his more famous name sake:studied understatement is his way of speaking and this rhetorical choice was in full dispaly when he announced to the media recently that the NATO is in danger of becoming irrelevant in Afghanistan. There were howls of protest from the NATO capitals, but no one who follows the incresingly dismal news from Kabul can be in any doubt ablut the truth of Bill Gate's statement. The biggest mistake that George Bush ...
This is Barack Obama addressing a rally in Rhode Island, one of the 4 states headied for the primaries on March 4, 2008. So far he has run a very positive campaign stridently putting forth calls for change in an increasinly bitter politicaldiscourse. John Mccain, the Republican front runner, is trying to focus on the Iraq War in the hope of whipping up a patriotic fervor that will help swing votes in his direction. From all accounts the American people have gotten sick of the war and want th...
The spectalular series of victories won by Mr Barack Obama, eight in a straight row, raises two questions. How can we expalin his success. And two, what are the lessons to be learnt from the Obama style of political rhetoric and communication. I am surprised that the American media has not started analysing the style and substance of Barack Obama's speeches and public addresses. In mu opinion there is no politician in the English speaking world today who deploys the poetical cadence of the Engli...
Super Tuesday has come and gone, but the scene is still confused and perplexing. The Republicans have more or less sewn up the nomination process, even, though Senator John Mccain has a harvest of only 517 delegate out of a required total of 1,191. His nearest rival, Mitt Romney has 219 delegates and Huckabee has 158. The surprising aspect of Super Tuesday was the fact that the Baptist minister Mike Hukabee was able to win 5 states and win in states like Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee and West Vi...
When we follow the American elections from across the world, we notice a strage sense of disconnect between what is "democratic" in the USA and the rest of the world. The election of the American president is surely one of the most complex and mind boggling political process anywhere in the world. As the 2000 election showed, though Al Gore won the majority of the popular votes, the rival candidate was able to steal the election as he won, not discounting help in Florida, the majority of the ele...
It sound so cruel to say so soon after the horrific assasination of Benazir Bhutto that events appear twice in history, first time a tragedy second time a farce. The unfortunate death of a brave woman is now acquiring all the trappings of a South Asian dynastic soap opera. The immense groundswell of sympathy for the slain woman is being systematically squandered by the People's Party and its leadership, especialloy her husband, Mr Asif Ali Zardari. There seems to have been a concerted attempt t...
The talk show host Ms Oprah Winfrey is known all over the world as a concerned voice for the disadvantaged. The school that she constructed in South Africa for poor children reinforced her image of being a television version of Mother Theressa. However her decision to openly back Barack Onama in his bid for the Presidency seem to me to smack of a slight bow towards identity politics.I have nothing against Obama and indeed, I find him quite engaging as a politician and he does not have to carry t...
I am sometimes amazed at the cold blooded hypocricy of the Bush-Cheeeny administration. On the one hand they are figfhting a self declared war on terroism using all the weapons that amodern state can provide, and they are trying to chain the most valuable asset in this war, President Pervez Musharraf with the heavy chains of human rights and democracy of the US variety. Both are incompatiable with each other. The US seems to have forgotten the basic lesson of history: The Pakhtoons are distribu...
The fundamental rule of civilised warfare is that civilians are not targetted in a war.. The logic of "collateral damage" leads to large scale violations of the rules of combat. I agree that the fact of terrorism has made some, not all, rules iirrelevant. In Iraq, the USA has been using baits to kill Iraqis. By planting "baits" and killing all those who bite the bait, USA has made a major tactical mistake, because this kind of unethical warfare will not discourage but only encourage counter tact...
The Maliki regime was not known for prudence even in the best of times. The indecent haste with which the former president was hanged and the sordisd manner in which he was killed, no doubt, goes to show the uncivilised and barbaric face of the Maliki regime. It is well known that Blackwater was operating in Iraq in a brazen and cocky manner. The killing of 8 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad was just one of several such episodes in which this private security service was involved in. In fact the entir...