America’s finest hour

Oh my god ! What happened ? It’s still feels so surreal. It is undoubtedly a history-in-the-making moment for America. A once in a millenia type of event and I’m glad I’m alive to witness this. In 1 fell swoop, the elections have now accelerated the process of healing the racial divides and sought to erase centuries of discrimination and bigotry. In 1 election, it has fulfilled Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream”. And in 1 momentous night, it has completely challenged old stereotypes and mindsets in people the world over, that the color of the skin means less than the value of the human being. Even if President Obama’s can’t deliver on his campaign promises, just by his election to the highest office in the land, America is already once again the land of incredible potential, the beacon that once again shines a righteous path into the future, embodying the ideals of a better world. Once again the world can rely on America’s democratic system and its people to do the right thing. All Americans are the winners in this election and so is the world. There are no losers in this election only those who are now plotting against the tide of history to turn us all into cynics once again. But I have faith in the good sense of the people of America. They will rise to the occasion when called upon and they will again prevail. This is the real foundation of America’s power and strength, not in its military might nor its economic size.

As Bill Clinton once said that America should be “a power in its example, than an example of its power”. The expected goodwill that will come from the Obama presidency will have enormous effects on how the world is going to be structured in the next decades. No one knows how it will look like but like what Colin Powell said, it’s going to be transformational, it’s going to be powerful. No amount of military persuasion can have an effect as large as this and the irony is that it will fulfill what the Republican party’s neocons have been planning all along. Their strategy is to use hard power to exert the predominance of the US but it is doomed to fail in the 21st century. Firm but soft and compassionate power advocated by President Obama is the way forward. It will indeed be a new world order but fortunately not the 1 envisioned by the neocons. This is what I am boldly predicting prematurely because if there’s anything President Obama has taught us, it’s to keep dreaming and hoping for the best.

Once again, I congratulate President Obama and the people of America and thank you for renewing my faith in this great nation on planet earth. God bless America.

The Economist endorses Obama

A sober and balanced endorsement by a magazine for Obama. The Economist has been pretty critical of Obama but it has turned around and endorsed him instead after weighing all the factors. It says that if McCain had been running based on his usual self instead of pandering to the Republican far right, it would have been a very different story. Obama is still untested and that would already have been enough to nail his presidency hopes. But

There is no getting around the fact that Mr Obama’s résumé is thin for the world’s biggest job. But the exceptionally assured way in which he has run his campaign is a considerable comfort. It is not just that he has more than held his own against Mr McCain in the debates. A man who started with no money and few supporters has out-thought, out-organised and out-fought the two mightiest machines in American politics—the Clintons and the conservative right.

This feat alone shows he is far more competent than so-called old hands in politics. In a way, I think being experienced in Washington’s ways is a baggage in this election because of how Obama has defined the battle. Obama refused to let his campaign be defined by those of the past which is based largely on character assassination, mud-slinging and pandering to the electorate. Instead, he chose to run a very different campaign strategy and it takes a lot of courage to do that. He stood his ground staking his campaign on his message around ordinary Americans and their aspirations, their frustrations. He skilfully deflects all the smears and barbs thrown at him by chiding them of resorting to low-handed tactics instead of trying to address the fundamental problems faced by the country. It is simply brilliant the way he and his team has conducted his campaign which has moved even the skeptical Economist’s editors him to throw in their support .

As the election looms near, here’s some Matrix nostalgia :

Agent Smith: You hear that Mr. Anderson?… That is the sound of inevitability… It is the sound of your death… Goodbye, Mr. Anderson…
Neo: My name… is Barack Hussein Obama.

Yes, the sound has changed since 2 years ago and we all know which way the sound is going now, the only question is how loud will it be.

Above the fray

Ken Adelman, who claimed to be a staunch conservative, tells about his reasons why he’s endorsing Obama :

McCain’s temperament — leading him to bizarre behavior during the week the economic crisis broke — and his judgment — leading him to Wasilla — depressed me into thinking that “our guy” would be a(nother) lousy conservative president. Been there, done that.

I’d rather a competent moderate president. Even at a risk, since Obama lacks lots of executive experience displaying competence (though his presidential campaign has been spot-on). And since his Senate voting record is not moderate, but depressingly liberal. Looming in the background, Pelosi and Reid really scare me.

Nonetheless, I concluded that McCain would not — could not — be a good president. Obama just might be.

That’s become good enough for me — however much of a triumph (as Dr. Johnson said about second marriages) of hope over experience.

Essentially it is “I would rather have a competent, leftlist, liberal president than a lousy rightist, conservative president”. Well said. Decency and competency should triumph over ideology, race, religion anytime. Here lies the real strength of Obama’s campaign and how McCain is sorely missing the point. He has constantly put himself above the useless bickering over ideology and instead focus his campaign on the message of unity and problem solving. He has shrewdly elevated himself above the fray and become untouchable while our image of McCain is that he’s still stuck in the bottom doing mudslinging. I think Obama has shown how presidential campaigns can be run and won that’s not based on negativity which has caused much cynicism in the political process. But I’m not sure that there’s gonna be another Obama who will have the character, steadfastness, confidence and stature to pull another campaign like this in future. It remains to be seen. Here’s another good article describing Obama’s superb campaign strategy, the non-campaigning passive campaign.

Polls versus putting money where the mouth is

Came across this interesting site, InTrade Prediction Market. It currently predicts Obama will win 375 electoral votes versus 163 for McCain. If you don’t trust the election polls, this is one alternative. In my opinion, it reflects a better picture of the election because of the following assumptions :

• It is based more on informed decision-making and minimizes the biases in some polls. But bear in mind that traders will still base their decisions on what they get in the news and the media being skewed in this election does affect the market results.
• Of course, putting the money where your mouth is, traders want to bet on the right outcome because they don’t want to lose money.
• Aggregation power of informed traders. They represent the aggregated perceptions and information available at the current moment.

McCain is playing with fire

McCain is on dangerous ground here. He does nothing when somebody calls Obama a terrorist. This is the kind of integrity coming out of a war hero. C’mon, sir, where are your principles, left them in Vietnam ? This is the kind of thing that is splitting America right now. If McCain continues to use the hate tactic and fire up the extremists in America, what difference is he from the terrorists that he’s sworn to stop ? Look into a mirror, for god’s sake, McCain and please know what you’re doing !

More laughs should McCain win

I’ve been an avid fan of the Jon Stewart Daily Show and Stephen Colbert’s Report and they’re gonna be the chief beneficiaries of a McCain-Palin win. Just as with Bush, McCain-Palin will be the next Laurel & Hardy combination and you can expect a lot more laughs and entertainment from these guys. An Obama win will not be so good for these shows but I’m sure they’ll think of something To put it simply, if you want more comedy and talk show entertainment, vote McCain-Palin and if you are looking for serious solutions to serious problems, vote Obama. It’s as simple as that !

For some fun, watch a clip from SNL here and Colbernation here.