Joe Lieberman really thinks that he can make an ass of the Democratic Party. After poodling to John McCain and snouting his behind for two years, he thinks he can work with President-elect Obama and caucus with the Democratic Party in the Senate. Hopefully in two years his state will kick his butt when he re-offers for the Senate seat.
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You guys might have missed this special interview of Wolf Blitzer conducted with John McCain on the chances of his success. OK, I am just kidding but Blitzer did go Star Trekkie with the holograms and stuff. NBC wasn't much better with their virtual room.
Electronic trajectory and virtual reality kind of hijacked the election night coverage.
A Rough and Winding Road Ahead
Now that the US election is over, and the victor has been declared, congratulations to Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. But... what now? And, what is Obama inheriting as he prepares to take the reins of power?
First, there is the economy which is an absolute mess thanks to the deregulations of the ideological neo-cons, started by Ronald Reagan, which reached their peak under George W. Bush. People are suffering not only in the United States. With the United States being the cornerstone of the global economy the economic problems of America are the World's problems. This is a problem which President-elect Obama is going to inherit.
But more about the economy later, right now I want to turn to the two wars which the United States is embroiled in - Iraq and Afghanistan. If the Bush administration would have focussed on Afghanistan from the start - a war about disabling Al-Qaeda and which had international support - the objectives would have been achieved. However, George W. Bush and his big oil friends wanted to become rich in a hurry, so they invaded Iraq to control its oil resources.
The Iraq invasion has helped no one, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and Saddam Hussein's regime did not allow religious extremists into Iraq. They were seen as a destabilizing threat to his regime. The only big winners in Iraq are Al-Qaeda - which has found new recruiting ground due to the instability brought on by the invasion - and Iran. In the case of Iran, what they could not do in more than two decades George W. Bush did for them, eliminate their chief rival in the region, Iraq.
Let us not fool ourselves, the United States controls Iraq. Some of George W. Bush's friends may have oil contracts in Iraq, but it looks that political power is now in the hands of pro-Iranian factions who are getting their directions from Iran rather than the United States. Bush's dream has become the Middle East's worse nightmare.
In the region, Israel already has nuclear weapons. If Iran has these weapons too and the two countries engage in nuclear war, it'll be a different World from the one we know... if there still is a World around after such a horrific exchange. The only way the Middle East problem can be resolved is to do what Carter tried, which Bill Clinton followed. That is, foster peace and mutual cooperation between the Israelis and their Arab neighbours.
Jimmy Carter was successful in bringing peace between the Israelis and their neighbours, the Egyptians and the Jordanians. If Carter had enough time, he could probably have resolved the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, returning to 1967 boundaries.
All this has been lost with the Bush administration with the Arab World alienated from the West. I sincerely hope that Barack Obama can change this, and bring all the parties together so that resolution is found for the Middle Eastern region.
Then, of course, Barack Obama has to deal with the rising power of Russia and China as well as problems in Pakistan and between Russia and Georgia. These problems between Russia and Georgia can best be resolved with negotiations and diplomacy to avoid another Cold War.
Mr. Obama has alot on his plate, I hope and pray that he succeeds in his efforts.
I also sincerely hope that he succeeds in turning the economy around. There are many losers Worldwide with this slumping economy. Individuals invested in stocks, I'm not talking about the Wall Street speculators but regular people who had retirement savings or personal savings in stocks. They have found their life savings and nest eggs depleted. These need to be saved or else there will be a bigger Worldwide tragedy.
Finally, I want to add that John McCain, in his concession speech, was especially gracious. I only wish that he ran his campaign in that manner -- at heart, he really is a decent man. I am encouraged by his pledge to work with Barack Obama to help America and the World out of these crisis.
Below are a couple of very touching pictures from Obama's victory speech.
Jesse Jackson
Oprah Winfrey
The electoral vote is now nearing 300. I never thought I'd see the day. Amazing.
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Mac in Sac and he ain't coming back
My prediction. The Obama-Biden team will win with a big margin.
Why John McCain Should NOT Be US President:
This post is actually a bit difficult for me to write. As a person, I like John McCain. He is a war hero and a genuinely decent person. In 2000 he ran a principled campaign in the primaries but was brought down by Karl Rove style attack tactics.
Unfortunately, the John McCain of 2008 is not the John McCain of 2000. He has sold out on almost everything he stood for eight years ago, including the very Karl Rove attacks he once denounced. So here are a few reasons why I believe that John McCain should NOT be elected President of the United States:
1. His Erratic Response to the Wall Street Collapse: First, John McCain made the Herbert Hooveresque statement that, "the fundamentals of the economy are sound" only to retract that statement. He then said he would not show up for the first Presidential debate claiming he needed to help work out a bailout deal on Capitol Hill (even though evidence shows that his presence there was counter-productive). Then, even while there was no deal, and after much drama, he did show up to the debate.
John McCain's erratic behaviour, and inconsistent statements, show a poor temperment for a potential Commander in Chief.
2. Poor Judgment: Picking Sarah Palin as VP: Sarah Palin is clearly unqualified to be Vice President, she has only been Governor of Alaska for twenty months, before that being mayor of a town of 7,000 people. In interviews, she has not been able to display even basic knowledge of national and international affairs. Her views on issues such as abortion are extreme -- she opposes abortion even in cases of incest and rape. Why did McCain pick someone so clearly unqualified for the post, so clearly clueless about national and international affairs? Why did he pick someone with such extremist and fundamentalist views? If something happened to McCain and she became President, it would be a truly horrific affair.
Furthermore, she was not even properly vetted. McCain had only met her once face to face, and he seemed oblivious to the Troopergate scandal where she abused her power as Governor.
John McCain's hasty and ill-considered VP pick clearly displays poor judgment which further makes him unsuitable for the Presidency of the United States.
3. Out of Touch: Republicans accuse Obama of being an "elitist", John McCain tries to play the common-man with his constant repetition of "Joe the Plumber", but McCain owns seven houses and is clearly out of touch with the needs of ordinary Americans. John McCain is trying to promote his plan for tax cuts to the wealthy who don't need them, while denouncing Barack Obama's plan to give greater tax cuts to the middle class with erratic calls of "socialism" and "Marxism."
John McCain is clearly out of touch with the needs of ordinary Americans as he's focussed more on tax cuts for the rich, and on a $150,000 wardrobe for his VP, rather than on helping Americans up in painful economic times.
4. One Hundred Years in Iraq: John McCain is a foreign policy hawk, he supports a militaristic foreign policy that would include alienating Russia and China and setting off another Cold War. Furthermore, John McCain wants to keep troops in Iraq even though the Iraqi government wants out, even despite the fact that the Bush administration is now negotiating a withdrawal (in this respect McCain is not just a continuation of destructive Bush policies, he would go further than even Bush and Cheney's wildest dreams).
For McCain, the destructiveness of war is a joke, as seen with his refrain of "Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran."
John McCain will be a clear danger to the World, even worse than Bush, if he is allowed to enact his hawkish foreign policy agenda.
5. McBush: On a militaristic and unilateralist foreign policy, on a domestic policy of unaffordable tax cuts for the rich which have driven America into deep deficits, John McCain has effectively endorsed George W. Bush's failed policies which have dragged America down the tubes (and in some cases, such as on foreign policy, would go even further than Bush). Furthermore, as a Senator, McCain voted with Bush over 90% of the time. All McCain's cries of "reformer" and "maverick" cannot hide this fundamental fact, that McCain is closely allied to the clearly disasterous foreign and domestic policies of George W. Bush and the hard-right of the Republican Party.
I hope my American friends make the right choice, and not allow this man to take office. It is true that the polls are trending clearly in Obama's favour, but the poll that truly matters is the one on election day and I won't feel assured until after November 4th. So please, to all those in the United States, get out and vote, vote out the Republicans, and vote to take your country back.
It is amazing that McCain and Palin are still going on and on about Joe the Plumber even though it has become a comedy punch line for the late night shows in the US. Did Joe the Plumber help their campaign? The jokes about it on the late night shows reveal that it has helped their ratings and that is about it.
Joe the Plumber can really help McCain and Palin by asking them to withdraw from the race. That will put them out of their misery because they do not have a hope in hell to win on Tuesday. McCain's flip-flops were bad enough that he needed to add Palin to his ticket. The other day Keith Olbermann of MSNBC was struggling to say something very funny about McCain and finally he came up with two words: Sarah Palin.
McCain is ready for the Smithsonian as an American relic but I do not think Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber will qualify even for that distinction. However, Joe the Plumber's uncanny resemblance to the Mr. Clean character in commercials may give him an edge.
CKOI's comedy duo, "Les Justiciers Masques" got Palin good. Almost seven minutes, and she didn't catch on. She didn't even seem to know the name of Canada's Prime Minister, even though she's supposedly worked with Canada on the Pipeline.
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