Let me sidestep for a while on my UK vacation to provide a commentary on the upcoming US Elections later this day, 4 November 2008. True enough, you can put out the lawyer in politics, but you can never put out the politics in a lawyer, in my case, a political science turned law student.
US Presidential elections are always looked after in world news, not only because the United States is the so-called beacon of democracy in the modern world, but because it is the election of the leader of the world's largest economy and the only remaining superpower in the world. Everyting that happens in the US has a profound effect on the rest of the world, as reflected by the recent financial crisis, caused by the crashing of Wall Street over the sub-prime crisis. As they frequently say, when America sneezes, everyone else catches a cold. Hence, anything, including administration and policy changes, has a significant impact on the world.
This year's election has set amazing historical precedents. It started with the history set by the Democrats during the Primary elections. It is the first time a woman (Hillary Clinton) and an African-American (Barack Obama) had been major contenders as frontrunners for Democratic nominee. Both of the major contenders in the Democratic Party were history makers in their own right. A relatively young Obama with fantastic rhethoric rides of on a platform of change, while Clinton claims expertise on a wide range of issues. When Obama won the Democratic nomination, he set another record to be the first non-white to be a Presidential nominee of a major political party. After being nominated for the presidency, he decided to chose Sen. Joe Biden, a known foreign policy expert, to counteract the claims of his lack of experience. Despite calls for Sen. Clinton to be his running mate, he clearly walked the line of prudency, knowing the deep wounds of the campaign has yet to heal.
With his wide reaching appeal and amazing American rhethoric, Obama has brought politics back with the youth. He has attracted the attention of the world stage. In November 4, if polls are to be believed, he may take the presidency, on the people's hope of change.
On the other side of the contest, Republican candidate John McCain rocked the political world when he chose as running mate, the feisty Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, to counteract Obama's advantage of precedents, because she is the first woman to be selected as a Vice-Presidential running mate. A single mom and relatively young, Palin, a patron of the influential US National Rifle Association (NRA), gave the election a twist, as both parties may now claim history setting records in the upcoming elections.
But history-making facts set aside, the bone of contention still is the expiration of George W. Bush's 8-year term as president, reputed to be one of the worst US president in recent history. Even McCain, his partymate distances himself from Bush. Thus, whoever replaces him has the responsibility and burden to correct his wrong policies, which caused the global turmoil the world is now into. Reality bites us all hard, and the next US President, is not so different.
The failed policies of George Bush makes the campaign of Republican John McCain particularly a distance-me-away and not-a-Bush-look-alike type of slogans. He focuses on Obama's youth and relative unpraparedness to take over the Presidency to veer against the Bush tags. However, the negative tone of his campaign has driven long time friend and republican stalwart Colin Powell into supporting the candidacy of the Democratic candidate. He never clearly enunciated his economic, political and domestic policies, nor did he inspire the more numerous undecided voters to vote for him. Even his choice of vice-president failed to stir attention, except for a few months and the issue of over-priced wardrobe. And with the recent loss of traditionally Republican states, it is clear that we may have a Democrat in the White House in 2008.
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