Blowin' In The Wind

Obama, media and Chicago politics

The American media has failed to take a close look at Barack Obama, writes John Kass in Obama's hometown newspaper Chicago Tribune. He sums up Obama as a product of Chicago politics which, according to him, is not all that clean.

The New York Times has a more in-depth story about Obama's Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side. It says this is not the first time Obama is running as the candidate for change. The difference is he is winnning now -- it did not work in Chicago when he ran against Congressman and former Black Panther leader Bobby Rush in 2000 and lost.

The article is worth reading because it shows how Obama eased his way from the fringes of liberal politics to the national mainstream winning the support of Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago and his machine. It quotes Rashid Khalidi, a Middle East scholar and an adviser to the Palestinian delegation to the 1990s peace talks, who used to invite Obama to dinner. Khalidi says:

“People think he’s a saint. He’s not. He’s a politician.”

Kass says:

As a candidate, Obama will do what he has to do to win. My argument is not with him — but with the national political media pack that refuses to look closely at what Chicago is...

Why is Obama allowed to campaign as a reformer, virtually unchallenged by the media, though he's a product of Chicago politics and has never condemned the wholesale political corruption in his home town the way he condemns those darn Washington lobbyists.

For an answer, I called on Tom Bevan, executive director of the popular political Web site Real Clear Politics and a Chicagoan.

"To a large degree, the media has accepted much of the Obama narrative thus far," Bevan told me. "He's risen so quickly, but his history hasn't been bogged down with an association of Chicago politics and I can't tell you why exactly...

"And I don't know if the country understands just how corrupt the system is in Illinois. People don't see it. They're flying over us, cruising at 30,000 feet," Bevan said.

USA still leads -- and will lead -- the world

Forget the nasayers -- America remains an inspiration to us all, writes Will Hutton in the Observer. He is absolutely right. He is so spot-on and so inspiring I have decided to save almost the whole article here.

The more I visit the US the more I think the pundits predicting the US's imminent economic and political decline hugely overstate their case. Rather, the next 50 years will be as dominated by the US as the last 50. The US will widen its technological and scientific dominance, sustain its military hegemony, launch a period of reindustrialisation and continue to define modernity both in culture and industry.

The fashionable view is that the American economy is a busted flush, a hollowed-out, deindustrialised shell housed in decaying infrastructure that delivers McJobs and has survived courtesy only of a ramped-up housing market and the willingness of foreigners to hold trillions of dollars of American debts.

China and India are set to overtake it in the foreseeable future. At best, the US will have to get used to living in a multipolar world it cannot dominate. At worst, it will have to accept, along with the West, that the new economic and political heart of the world is Asia.

The US economy is certainly in transition, made vastly more difficult by the spreading impact of the credit crunch. But the underlying story is much stronger. The country is developing the prototypical knowledge economy of the 21st century, an economy in which the division between manufacturing and services becomes less clear cut, in a world where the deployment of knowledge, brain power and problem-solving are the sources of wealth generation.

What counts is the strength of a country's universities, research base, commitment to information and communications technology and new technologies along with a network of institutions that supports new enterprise. Here, the US is so far ahead of the rest of the world it is painful.

The figures make your head spin. Of the world's top 100 universities, 37 are American. The country spends more proportionately on research and design, universities and software than any other, including Sweden and Japan. Of the world's top 50 companies ranked by R&D, 20 are American. Fifty-two of the world's top 100 brands are American. Half the world's new patents are registered by American companies.

This year, American exports have grown by 13 per cent, helped by the falling dollar, so that the US has reclaimed its position as the world's number one exporter. Moreover, and little remarked on, two-thirds of America's imports come from affiliates of American companies that determinedly keep most of the value added in the US. The US certainly has a trade deficit, but importantly it is largely with itself.

A Chinese lake?

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Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah yesterday described China as the "gravest threat to India". India's navy chief Admiral Suresh Mehta has also expressed concern. This Google map shows why. The green arrow points at Hainan island, in the South China Sea, where the Chinese are reported to be building a massive underground naval base for nuclear submarines. India will be caught in a pincer, with China also helping to build a port at  Gwadar in Pakistan close to the Straits of Hormuz which will give it access to the Gulf.

Singapore port operator PSA operates the Gwadar international terminal as well as terminals in India, in the ports of Chennai, Tuticorin, Hazira and Kolkata.

About the new Chinese base at Hainan, India's NDTV reports:

The area is about 2,000 km from India and is said to have underground chambers and tunnels which can base upto 12 nuclear submarines.

Wikipedia says China's Type 094 Jin Class submarines can each carry 12 Ju Lang 2 (Giant Wave 2) ballistic missiles with a range of 8000 km, capable of hitting targets in the Western Hemisphere, not to mention neighbouring countries like India.

Singapore's Jeyaretnam: New York view

He is 82 years old, his Reform Party launched last month has only 10 members.

But Singapore's opposition politician JB Jeyaretnam was featured in the New York Times yesterday. One does not have to necessarily agree with him to admire his never-say-die spirit.

The New York Times presents a heroic portrait of JBJ, who was Singapore's first opposition politician elected to Parliament in 1981, 16 years after independence. It says:

Mr. Jeyaretnam’s flamboyance has clearly irritated (Singapore's Minister Mentor) Mr. Lee (Kuan Yew) over the years...

“Jeyaretnam,” he writes (in his autobiography) “is a poseur, always seeking publicity, good or bad.”

He does indeed love the limelight, but it is far more than a pose. Like with some dissidents in other nations, Mr. Jeyaretnam’s single-minded pursuit of a moral vision seems to be a compulsion.

The article begins:

It might seem late for a fresh start, but that is the story of J. B. Jeyaretnam’s life, a political intruder who refuses to stay away.

Last month he was back after six years of political banishment, the grand old man of political opposition ready to joust again with Singapore’s immovable political establishment.

“We are just beginning!” he exclaimed at a small news conference announcing the formation of a new party, the Reform Party.

It was an unusual phrase to hear from an 82-year-old man who has been running for office — when the courts would allow him — since 1971.

Obama and the Democrats

Barack Obama poked fun at himself, admitting he had no political experience, more than two years ago. Don Campbell in USA Today writes:

More than two years ago, at a Gridiron Club news media dinner in Washington, Obama poked fun at his meagre accomplishments when he told his audience: "I want to thank you for all the generous advance coverage you've given me in anticipation of a successful career. When I actually do something, we'll let you know."

Now we know he has every chance of winning the greatest prize in America: the White House. John McCain seems to be squandering his chances by espousing the same policies which have made Bush so unpopular in an America crying for change.

But even if the Republicans lose this election, and even if Obama is a great president, is the future bright for the Democratic Party?

After his landslide victory in North Carolina, Obama ridiculed those who thought he might lose. He said:

"There are those who were saying that North Carolina might be a game changer. But today North Carolina decided that the only game that needs changing is the one in Washington."

He was not telling the full story.

North Carolina also showed no Democrat can be nominated president without the support of the African Americans.

Hillary Clinton did not lose because she is despised by the young and liberals.

Clinton lost because more than 90 percent of the African Africans voted against her. That made all the difference in a state where more than 30 percent of the Democrats are African Americans, as it did in South Carolina, where 55 percent of the voters in the Democratic primary were blacks, and 78 percent of them supported Obama while 19 percent voted for Clinton and only 2 percent for John Edwards, according to ABC.

The politics of race does not explain why Clinton won by only two percentage points in Indiana, where less than 10 percent of the population are blacks. But there again Obama won only a minority of the white vote. Politico reported:

Eight in 10 voters in Indiana were white -- and with the support of six in 10 whites, Clinton won a narrow majority in the race.

This race has been coloured by race. Inevitably Obama has been embraced by the young and the liberals and the African Americans keen to make history and turn over a new leaf in America.

But the same idealism which inspires them to elect a black president has also heightened the issue of race.

And the triumph of Obama shows the decisive role of the African Americans in the Democratic Party.

It did not happen overnight.

Black power

The epoch-making election of a black American president will be the culmination of the political gains already made by the African Americans.

Mayor Rudy Clay of Gary, delaying the election results in Indiana, was a visible reminder of black power. Andrew Young, Maynard Jackson, Coleman Young, Marion Barry, David Dinkins, Kwame Kilpatrick, Frank Melton, Michael Nutter -- prominent African Americans have occupied the mayor's office in the biggest American cities, from New York to Washington, Atlanta to Detroit, Philadelphia to Jackson. Contrary to Obama, who has no executive experience, they have enjoyed real authority.

How Obama almost won in Indiana

Barack Obama almost stole a victory in Indiana too in the most dramatic Democratic primary so far. He came from behind winning heavily in a predominantly black area, one of the last to declare results, and almost closed the gap with Hillary Clinton before losing only by a whisker.

Obama chipped away Clinton's lead thanks to an overwhelming vote for him from Lake County and its city of Gary whose mayor Rudy Clay (see picture) supports Obama. Lake County did not release  election results until the rest of the state had given a narrow lead to Clinton. Then as results began to come in from the city of Gary, Clinton's lead began to shrink.

Finally, the Indianapolis Star reported:

With 99 percent of the votes counted, Clinton was clinging to a narrow 51 to 49 percent lead. Only 22,000 votes out of about 1.2 million cast separated her and Obama.

The Washington Post reports:

Gary, a predominantly African-American, post-industrial city, is considered a major stronghold for the Illinois senator, whose South Side Chicago home is just a short drive across the border.

The Washington Post blog, The Swamp, reports:
 

As the results of Indiana's close primary election were delayed by Lake County's prolonged vote-counting, the network news commentators were starting to question the integrity of the ballot-count in Hammond, Gary and environs.

Jeff Toobin, the legal analyst turned political commentator, was openly suggesting on CNN that this unusual release of the tally smacked of Chicago-style vote-counting: Withholding the results of a county likely to favor Sen. Barack Obama until the rest of the close count in the state was completed.

The Washington Post vividly reported the drama:

As the fate of a nailbiter Indiana primary -- and possibly the course of the Democratic race -- hung on his city, Gary Mayor Rudy Clay said his city had turned out so overwhelmingly for Barack Obama that it might just be enough to close the gap with Hillary Rodham Clinton...

Clay said the results were late coming in from Lake County because of the large numbers of absentee ballots that had to be counted -- about 11,000. Under local practice, all of the cartridges from voting machines in Gary and nearby East Chicago are first collected at the local airport before being driven to the county headquarters to be tallied with the results from the rest of the county, he said...

White House race: Game over?

Congratulations to Barack Obama on winning the North Carolina Democratic primary but this was not the kind of victory he had in mind. Just look at the demographics.CNN reports:

Obama took an overwhelming 91 percent of the black vote in North Carolina, according to exit polls, while Clinton claimed only 6 percent.

Clinton took 59 percent of the white vote compared to 36 percent for Obama, according to the polls.

So the white vote is not as lopsided as the black vote and Obama does represent a cross-section of Americans.

But he has a problem. CNN reports:

According to early exit polls, half of Clinton's supporters in Indiana would not vote for Obama in a general election match up with Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

A third of Clinton voters said they would pick McCain over Obama, while 17 percent said they would not vote at all. Forty-eight percent of Clinton supporters said they would back Obama in November.

Obama got even less support from Clinton backers in North Carolina where 45 percent of Clinton supporters said they would vote for him over McCain. Thirty-eight percent of Clinton supporters said they would vote for McCain while 12 percent said they would not vote.

Obama voters appear to be more willing to support Clinton in November. In Indiana, 59 percent of Obama backers said they'd vote for Clinton, and 70 percent of Obama backers in North Carolina said they'd vote for her against McCain.

The good news for the Democrats if Obama is the nominee: they will continue to be supported by the liberals and the African Americans.

But American presidential elections are won and lost on white support, since they are the majority. As the New York Times reported three days ago:

Indeed, since 1964, Republicans have won 7 of 10 presidential contests. Pre-election polling, and television network exit polls in recent contests, have shown that no Democratic presidential candidate since Mr. Johnson has captured a majority of white support.

In 1992, Bill Clinton succeeded in broadening the party’s appeal to whites with his pledge to reduce middle-class taxes and “end welfare as we know it.”

But that coalition is gone. As the New York Times reported:
 

Mrs. Clinton, for her part, has found herself rolling up robust majorities among whites.(And) Mr. Obama’s dominance among black voters, once believed loyal to the Clintons, heightened the focus on race.

So the winner of the 2008 US presidential election is...

The Beatles in New York, 1965

And here are the Beatles singing Twist and Shout in New York in 1965. This is how they conquered America! This is historic!

The Beatles: Twist and Shout

And here are the Beatles singing Twist and Shout. Don't they look cute? Boy, they can really shout and "shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now"! John sings himself hoarse but doesn't sound bad at all. Maybe he couldn't growl like Elvis, but he could rasp something wicked.

Chubby Checker: Mr Twister

People today can't even imagine how popular Chubby Checker and the twist were once upon a time. This was one dance craze which swept through India like wildfire.

Even boys "loafing" on the streets who listened only to Hindi music danced the twist. In Calcutta (Kolkata), the music of Chubby Checker, the Ventures and the Shadows, and the soundtrack of the movie Come September starring Bobby Darin, Sandra Dee, Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida could be heard blaring from the loudspeakers placed outside puja pandals (marquees) during Durga Puja, the biggest festival of the Bengalis. And at the end of the Puja, the image of the goddess Durga would be taken in a procession for immersion in the river Ganges with the boys twisting to the music played by street bands.

Here's Chubby Checker and Let's Twist It Again. I couldn't resist posting it when I stumbled on it on YouTube. Wikipedia says it won the 1961 Grammy as the "best rock 'n' roll single".

Mr Twister, by the way, was the title of a song by Connie Francis -- and darned good it was, too.