What can you say about the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama? There is so much to write but I am not sure what to pick and what to skip. They have been campaigning for about 18 Months now and it is absolutely amazing to see them more fresh than ever. What a roller coaster ride this has been for both the candidates? Barack Obama won Iowa and every political pundit wrote Hillary off. Hillary came back and won New Hampshire the week after and this race has been beating the predictions of all pundits.
It is almost certain now that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee. Hillary Clinton hasn't given up but math is just not adding up for her. He for the first time is leading in pledged delegates and un-pledged delegates over Hillary. One argument that Hillary has been making about un-pledged delegates support that Hillary leads over Barack is no more a case as he picked up close to 25 un-pledged delegates after the big win in North Carolina. Hillary's campaign has made no. of arguments that she is more electable and better nominee to beat McCain in the fall. The latest argument is that Michigan and Florida were won by Hillary. This is absurd argument given that Barack was not even on the ballot in the Michigan and Florida primary elections.
Pundits are now talking about the running mates. Michelle Obama is such a passionate person that I started to think that Barack can very well pick her as running mate. I know this will not happen but Why look elsewhere when your spouse is such a leader? Media has been reporting that most democrats would like to see one candidate pick the other as running mate in the fall, whoever be the nominee. But, having run against each other for 18 long Months, how on earth can they run on the same ticket? First Woman Vice President of America will also go well in the American History, if Hillary agrees to run for Vice Presidency rather than continuing to make it easy for republicans in the fall. Barack is 46 years old now and will definitely run for presidency in year 2012 and/or 2016, if he doesn't win this time but his not winning is less likely given how screwed up things are after the Lil Bush's 8 years. Hillary had already decided that it is either now or for never. There was a time when Michelle said, "America has a chance to elect Obama and the chance is now". I do not remember the full quote but she said that America has only one chance to elect Barack and the chance is now. But, nobody is talking about it now and I assume that was said in the heat of a campaign speech.
John McCain on the other hand is the republican nominee breathing some fresh air now but he had his own troubles to deal with when his campaign was written off in the early days by every political pundit. He managed to win the nomination long back; thanks to some mistakes committed by other candidates and rules that helped his campaign. Rudy Guliani was the most probable candidate but his campaign decided not to go to Florida to campaign with a hope that Florida will anyway vote for him. What a terrible mistake that was? I think democratic national convention has to bend/twist the rules slightly to make the primary election less damaging to the party. Back to John McCain, he is a war hero and was a Prisoner of War during the Vietnam war but can a PoW run the country that is having 60 Trillion dollar fiscal deficit and in the midst of a war that is never ending? Also, he talks very much like Bush whe he talks about real issues such as economy, war, jobs, health care, energy crisis and global warming etc.. We are now hearing that Bobby Jindal, Gov. of Louisiana, is the top most pick for Vice Presidency on the republican ticket. I remember Indian media celebrating when he won as Congressman and Governor. We will have to wait and see what turns out? He is young and conservative to appease the traditional republicans and I feel he should start preparing the ground for running for presidency but he does have the racial disadvantage. It is surprising to see an Indian origin raising in republican politics.
There is only one thing that Barack's campaign had to battle hard to come out clean. It raised lot of doubts about Barack Obama's candidacy when Rev. Wright made some controversial and disturbing remarks about America in a sermon. Fox News made every effort to make it a black mark on the candidacy of Barack but I am surprised how this whole thing was handled by the media. It looked like Rev. Wright is the candidate not Barack Obama. Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and the Fox & Friends show tried their best to destroy Barack Obama and Barack did an excellent job by going air with Chris Wallace the weekend after Rev. Wright did some funny stuff at the National Press Club. It was good to see Rev. Wright clarify on Bill Moyers journal what he felt and I couldn't agree more with him. Mike Huckabee, Former republican presidential candidate and Gov. of Arkansas, who is very close to church on Morning Joe responded that the sermons are rarely written and preachers do get carried away with emotion rather than the substance. I am not supporting Rev. Wright but if 20 Second snippets are rolled again and again on National TV, it ought to raise eyebrows. After watching the complete sermon, I felt that Fox cheated people by not airing the context. Rev. Wright could have chosen better words but when you are preaching in front of a large crowd, words like these get uttered. I think Barack handled it well by speaking out at the right time. Also, Bill Richardson's endorsement came at the time when he needed it most. Bill Richardson, for those who do not know, withdrew from the democratic presidential race after the 3rd election or so, Gov. of New Mexico, and also worked in Clinton administration as ambassador to middle east. If Bill had decided a week before, Barack may have won more delegates in Texas, where Spanish voters helped Hillary.
Coming to Indian politics, lot of states are getting ready for polls and Karnataka's phase I polling was just done few days back. I would like BJP to win this election with absolute majority and winning a southern state would be a great boost for the growing party cadre in South India. Let us see what happens here!
Something that impressed me recently is the transition of Jairam Ramesh from economics to politics. George W Bush addressing a gathering about soaring global food prices said, "When you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food, and so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up". Jairam Ramesh responded, “George Bush has never been known for his knowledge of economics, and the remarks proved again how comprehensively wrong he is". George W Bush is just a joke in many a times but I see the statement from Bush more of what the reality is. You have two growing economies with close to half the world population and population if can afford would like to eat better food. I am happy that at least now, a western president acknowledged that Indian middle class is demanding nutritious food. I see no reason for any politician to take offense rather feel happy for what the middle class is able to do. This is just an example of how politicians want to score points with every given opportunity. No politician will ever listen to likes of Swaminathan on agriculture? One side you have supply side problems and the other side demand is growing. Prices are sky rocketing!! This is such a long post I don't think anybody would ever read this line.
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