A Political Glimpse from Ireland

The Obama Frenzy

Who would have guessed this turn in the elections? I remember a few months ago when the democratic nomination was just heating up that people thought the competition would make for a better candidate however it is amazing how quickly these pundits have changed their minds. Every time I turn on the television, I see people talking about the downfall of the Democratic Party because of this fighting, with some polls coming out this week showing that McCain could beat Obama or Clinton in the general election because of this incessant in-fighting.

If anyone remembers the January polls, they showed that Senator Obama was the only person who had a chance of beating John McCain in the general election however with all the mudslinging that is going on, the democratic party and liberals everywhere have lost hope because they see no end in sight to the constant bickering. That being said I still think there is a good chance for their to be a democratic president in 2009 for a few simple reasons:

1. President Bush has voiced his support for Senator McCain with people coining the term “McBush” which is not a good thing for the Senator due to President Bush having below a 40% approval rating according to recent polls. The last thing Senator McCain needs is to be associated with an unpopular president.
2. The majority of the American people still want the war to end despite the alleged improvement of the situation in Iraq due to the “Surge”
3. The Iraq War is costing the country a lot of money at a time when the United States is short on cash; check out the national priorities project on the right hand side of my blog because they have some excellent data on how the money could be spent elsewhere. Another good read is the “Three Trillion Dollar War” which is an economist’s view of the War in Iraq with some more impressive numbers.
4. McCain is still somewhat of a Liberal thinker and this is still dividing the Republican party to a certain extent which is good for any potential democratic candidate
5. The biggest issue facing the United States in 2008 and for the next few years is the economy. Having read John McCain’s interview with the Wall Street Journal, I can see no difference between his plans and what the current administration has tried to do. The conservatives have run the country for the last 8 years with no real change in the economy leading up to the current financial crisis. Tax-cuts haven’t worked so why do people still think they will work in 2009? I am no economic expert but I think if something fails in the past, don’t you think its time to try something else?

Eliminating McCain, we are still left with the choice of Senator Clinton or Senator Obama. Senator Clinton expects to do well in Pennsylvania and I think she will do so due to the Rev. Wright saga but what the Obama camp should be aiming for is to limit her gain in delegates to a handful and still retain the overall lead. Despite her predicted success, there has been an increasing call among the media and other pundits for her to give up which at this stage which I believe is the right thing to do. Senator Clinton I hope you realize that the only reason you are doing so well and will win Pennsylvania is because of the Rev. Wright scandal but you must realize that the majority of the Democratic Party wants Senator Obama to be the candidate for the general election. Mark Halperin over at Time has a great list of things the Senator should be aware of at this moment in the nominee process:

1. She can’t win the nomination without overturning the will of the elected delegates, which will alienate many Democrats.

2. She can’t win the nomination without a bloody convention battle — after which, even if she won, history and many Democrats would cast her as a villain.

3. Catching up in the popular vote is not out of the question — but without re-votes in Florida and Michigan it will be almost as impossible as catching up in elected delegates.

4. Nancy Pelosi and other leading members of Congress don’t think she can win and want her to give up. Same with superdelegate-to-the-stars Donna Brazile.

5. Obama’s skilled, close-knit staff can do things like silently kill re-votes in Florida and Michigan and not pay a political price.

6. Many of her supporters — and even some of her staffers — would be relieved (and even delighted) if she quit the race; none of his supporters or staff feel that way. Some think she just might throw in the towel in June if it appears efforts to fight on would hurt Obama’s general election chances.

7. The Rev. Wright story notwithstanding, the media still wants Obama to be the nominee — and that has an impact every day.

8. Obama might not be able to talk that well about the new global economy, but she (and McCain) can’t either.

9. Many of the remaining prominent superdelegates want to be for Obama and she (and Harold Ickes) are just barely keeping them from making public commitments to him.

10. She can’t publicly say more than 2% of all the things she would like to say about race, electability, beating McCain and experience.

11. If she somehow found a way to win the nomination, she would have to offer Obama the VP slot, and she doesn’t want to do that.

12. This is a change election, and Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton can never truly be change.

13. Obama is having fun most days, and she isn’t.

14. Even though her campaign staff is having more fun than it has for a long time, there’s hardly anyone there who, given half a chance, wouldn’t slit Mark Penn’s throat — and such internal dissension won’t help her in the home stretch.

Now let me give everyone my take on the Revered Wright saga, I think what the reverend said was totally wrong and really casts a negative light on all the progress the United States has made in uniting people of different races and cultures. That being said this saga has become captive of the media’s attention on Senator Obama which has been mostly good until now and hopefully people will come to realize this simple truth: We all have crazy people in our lives or people who have some crazy opinions, that doesn’t mean we should kick them out of our lives. When Senator Obama gave his speech this past week, I was proud of what he did; he disavowed Rev. Wright but made everybody understand that the man has done a lot for him in his life.

I myself have a few people in my life who have some crazy views. A Muslim friend of mine in high school used to joke with me about sparing my life once jihad takes over the world and I used to equally joke with him that I would spare his life when America took over the world. That is an extreme example but let’s take my parents who have said some racist things in the past against Black people and Asian people. They have changed their opinions over the years but that doesn’t mean I would ever kick them out of my life. I hope people will look beyond this Rev. Wright Saga to the kind of man Senator Obama is and vote for him on the fact that he has sound judgment and is a man of good character. People have also said that he should leave his church; I think this is another crazy idea; Rev. Wright has retired so why should he leave his church? Would you want to leave your Church, Mosque, Synagogue or Temple because some crazy preacher said something you didn’t agree with a long time ago? I think not.

It’s also amazing how quickly the media were satisfied by Senator McCain’s denunciation of Minister Hagee who has also said some hateful things but surprisingly they have not occupied the media as much as Rev. Wright’s comments. I don’t think this is media bias in a big way but rather what I termed in the title of this blog post that there is an Obama Frenzy going on in the American and Global media so that any story about the Senator takes top priority of boring McCain and Hillary. This is just a theory but maybe it is something to think about ? (Have a look over at Swimming Freestyle which actually brought this to my attention)

Lastly I wanted to post another YouTube video about the “3am” advert of Hillary Clinton in which the star of the advert recently posted a rebuttal video which the media has not picked up on which is a shame and gives more credence to my theory of media bias. Congratulations go out to the young actress who has really made a difference in politics at such a young age.

P.S Dear Senator Clinton and Obama, please stop fighting each other so stringently and focus some attention on  Senator McCain.