All Hail to the Chief

Financial and economic turmoil at home and abroad, a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan (and Pakistan), unstable Iraq, recalcitrant Iran, Palestinian grievances, Darfur genocide, Congolese strife, climate change, steadily increasing Chinese hegemony and the Mugabe nuisance (I wish!). Yes, the Obama administration will be one of the most eventful ever, if not the most challenging of them all. Indeed his first 100 days will probably the most closely watched and followed not just at home but all around the world. What a time it is to be the first black president of the world's sole superpower. Of course, I rather suspect that if he had the cojones and guts to take this arduous path, Barack Obama will probably relish the opportunity to prove himself as a capable and inspiring leader. I reckon if he surrounds himself with the right brains trust, his administration will assuredly tackle the myriad of challenges facing the United States and the rest of the world. Of course, campaign slogans and rhetoric melt way into oblivion when the real task is at hand and many presidents have had to alter course when in the Oval Office. However, no matter how dire the domestic and global outlook maybe, President-elect Obama already has something in his favour - he succeeds the 43rd president George W Bush. Need I write more!

Comhlamh Debates: Media & Development

Colin Powell endorses Obama

Frankly, I had always thought that if anyone could become the first African American president of the United States, it would be Colin Powell - that is if he had ever chosen to run. Anyway back to reality, his endorsement of Barack Obama and his performance on Meet the Press does go some way in restoring his considerable standing that had been badly tarnished by his shenanigans about the WMDs leading up to the Iraq war.

Race against Obama?

Tom Bradley was an African-American candidate in the 1982 race to become governor of the state of California. Running against a white candidate, Bradley was shown to be ahead in most of the opinion polls before the election. However, he lost the race and hence the so-called Bradley effect came into being to explain the discrepancy between the opinion polls and the actual election result. Apparently, this phenomenon resulted from white votes basically fibbing to pollsters about how they were going to vote, i.e. that they were going to vote for Bradley, when in fact they were going to vote for his white opponent. 

Which brings me to Senator Barack Obama’s lead in virtually all the major national polls in the US and in the electoral college projections, with just over 2 weeks to go before polling day. Now, whilst even Obama’s most ardent Hollywood supporters (and he has many) couldn’t have crafted a better script for him in his march to the White House (I mean, who could lose against a party that has presided over the subprime fiasco which morphed into a global financial crisis; has George W. Bush and Sarah Palin; ‘created’ quagmires that are Iraq and Afghanistan; let Osama slip away into the caves and chose an erratic and dare I say, past retirement age candidate for the most powerful political office in the world?), he cannot rest easy until all the votes have been counted and he has more than those 270 electoral college votes.

Whilst most commentators argue that the Bradley effect has diminished over the years, watching clips of some of the angry rhetoric at Senator John McCain’s campaign rallies, leave no one in any doubt that race is playing a big part in this election season and that it will play a significant role in the voting patterns and the result. Frankly, there are still enough Americans who cannot countenance having a black President in the White House to derail the Obama jaggernaut.

With this in mind, the Obama campaign cannot afford to put too much credence in the polls and assume positive opinion polls open the road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Thankfully Senator Obama seems to be very aware of this.

Double standards or what?

The Bush administration's $700bn rescue package, along with the bail out of AIG, Bear Stearns and other erstwhile financial titans signal desperate measures being invoked during desperate times. However, in other parts of the world, particularly in Asia and Africa, these interventions smack of double standards of western government particularly the United States. 

Its only a decade ago, when as the Asian economies were reeling under a regional financial crisis, the United States sharply criticized them for attempting to bail out cash-starved companies. So too do numerous African governments who were forced into strict market liberalisation conditions to qualify for structural adjustment packages and in some cases, balance of payments support from the Bretton Woods Institutions. They were lectured by the west that there should be no government intervention whatsoever in supporting ailing companies and strategic industries, with the mantra being let the free-market forces prevail.

What's good for the goose and what not, hey?

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Whilst I have come across articles prematurely sounding the death knell for capitalism as Main Street (to borrow a much abused term in these times - and that's you and me apparently) knows it, one blogger on an American newspaper website quipped that Trotsky, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, and Marx must all be looking down and having a mighty good laugh right now.