Category: Politics

http://youtube.com/v/m4yVlPqeZwo

Check out this video of Senator Barack Obama’s visit to Google. There is a part where he says, “Why bother, I might as well go work for Google” while responding to a question about why he was running for office. I thought that was pretty funny. Overall, he seemed at ease throughout and spoke well. From the audience response it sure sounds like he is popular in this part of the country.

Firstly, the issue of “should we or should we not talk to leaders of Iran (and other such unfriendly states)” It sure sounds that her claims that it was a naive on the part of Sen. Obama to say so has back fired. By responding that it is “Bush-like” behavior, Mr. Obama has turned this in his favor, further reinforcing himself as the true candidate of change. 

Next, the issue of experience. Mr. Obama has once again turned this around by stating that “no one had more experience the Rumsfeldt and Cheney”. During a recent visit to Silicon Valley he cleverly improvised this further by stating that “Sergey and Larry” didn’t have the experience yet built a Fortune 100 company!

Most recently, the issue of Senator Obama having lived abroad as a child has come up. Senator Clinton said that living broad as a child doesn’t qualify as foreign policy experience. Once again Senator Obama appears to have turned this around by stating (and quite rightly so) that “If you don’t understand these cultures then it’s very hard for you to make good foreign policy decisions. Foreign policy is all about judgment.”

In short, it appears as though Senator Clinton is having a hard time finding issues to pick against her opponent and when she does, it seems to help his case more than hurt him. Earlier in the race, it looked like Senator Clinton would be impossible to beat with her 20+ points lead in National polls. But this is fast fading, and the man with “Audacity of Hope” might just spring a surprise.

America is a nation obsessed with opinion polls – the recent poll on Iran, the one on electability to name a couple. Thanks to globalization (the other word for export of American culture), India and the the rest of the world is soon following suit (Asia’s sexiest women, generic polls on all and sundry) at an unbelievable pace. This means its time for America to step up and take the lead into the next phase — brain study! The study has already sparked off a controversy.

Irrespective of this controversy and the technicalities of this study, isn’t this kind of study a needless stretch? Time to call for a poll “time out!”

Hillary Clinton appeared a lot more defensive and a lot less confident than she did in the previous debates. John Edwards completely “blew it” when he responded to the “gender card” question. Obama hurt himself a bit when he appeared to waffle on the issue of drivers licenses. Joe Biden bolstered his case by being crisp and to the point (unlike his regular long winded style). Bill Richardson didn’t help his case by saying that “human rights has greater priority over national security”. 

These debates are fast becoming boring and repetitive. A series of one on one “Charlie Rose type” interviews is certainly better at giving voters insights on the candidates. The good news about these debates is that they force politicians to give direct short answers while they are usually accustomed to long-winded often evasive responses. The bad news though is that in its current form these debates are nothing more than “made for TV” dramas with little depth and substance.

It is not enough to simply know what a candidates’ stand on a certain issue might be. It is equally important to know why and how they arrived at that position on the issue. How a candidate thinks is equally if not more important than his or her stand on specific issues. Unfortunately, these debates give you only the positions and the follow-on spin associated with it and not the real rationale and thinking behind the stand. The driver’s license for illegal immigrants being a case in point. Reducing the challenges facing the country to simple yes or no answers is wrong, bad and is most often misleading. Besides, a debate is really a battle of ideas, not a bunch of one-liners slapped together that sound good and make good press!

For the first time, Hillary Clinton faltered. Gone was her smile and characteristic pre-programmed laughter. Being the front runner doesn’t come easy. Even Tim Russert, one of the moderators wanted to come after her! She came across as a candidate with calculated positions (as her husband Bill Clinton did). Unfortunately she lacks his charm and presence of mind. If this perception lingers, she could be in for some setbacks.

Obama, despite pre-event rhetoric stuck to his “politics of hope” mantra and went after her rather selectively and somewhat reluctantly. His opponents are bound to say that he does not have the stomach for a hard fight. On the other hand, he seems to be better equipped to win the “who would you rather have a beer with” question. He showed some excellent presence of mind and good humor in responding to the question about life beyond the earth. However, overall, he seemed too serious, sounded like he had a cold, and appeared subdued and unduly restrained. His body language could use some work!

John Edwards on the other hand went on the offensive at every possibly opportunity against Ms. Clinton. I suspect that his attacks helped Obama as much as it helped his own cause.

As for the rest, Bill Richardson has a good resume but can’t seem to engage the audience. Joe Biden sounds the best when he talks about foreign policy (and Guliani!); Chris Dodd brought up the issue of Hillary’s electability and indirectly helped Obama and Edwards’ case; Dennis Kucinich seemed too obsessed with impeaching George Bush than stating his own case!

The moderators particularly Tim Russert appeared blatantly out to attack Ms. Clinton. In summary, this was one of the better debates of this race.

Ms. Bhutto’s return has already taken its toll. Over a hundred innocent people have died and several hundreds injured. Her attempt to gain maximum political mileage nearly cost her her life. “The attack on me was not totally unexpected” she writes in the WSJ clearly indicating that she knew about the potential dangers. Despite this, she chose to gain maximum political mileage and media coverage on her return. Instead she could have slipped into Pakistan with minimum fanfare and then gradually launched into her campaign. Even if it didn’t gain all the instant coverage, it would have at the least saved a few hundred lives. Eight years of exile has not changed her “politics first” mindset.

Despite a symbolic change, unfortunately, between Pervez Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Shariff Pakistan has little to chose from. A Bhutto Government with Musharraf as President, which seems like the next step, is a case of a hopeless situation getting no better. At this point, Pakistan can only hope for some hope!

Musharraf can’t bring back Nawaz Shariff, his old boss whom he fired from office. But the courts think Mr. Shariff should be back in the country. Ms. Bhutto can’t become PM by law because she has had two turns at the job already. Musharraf can’t be President and Army chief according to the Supreme court. So he is being forced to dunk his uniform. Musharraf wants to be President but if he can’t, he wants to Army chief. No matter what, he wants to be in power. Ms. Bhutto wants to get back into action in some form or shape. But she first has to dodge hordes of corruption charges (among others) off her back. Given its endless war on terror, the US loves to keep Musharraf in office but can’t completely ignore the wishes of the Pakistani population. And then, there are all the fundamentalists groups, and of course Bin Laden and his followers, the spill over from Afghanistan, and the constant tension with India. It just seems like a situation that is getting worse by the day (btw, there are optimists even in this hour of crisis!).

After 60 years of so-called independence, its time Pakistan sought independence from what it has become during this time. A fresh start minus the current key players might be the best place to begin. Highly unrealistic and far-fetched, yet a grass roots movement to achieve this objective seems to be the only hope for Pakistan.

http://youtube.com/v/YENbElb5-xY

Amazing video clip! Everything he said in 1994 seems to have come true!