my Top 3(more if I can think of 'em =p) list of stupidest things to do while on the phone.
1. "Hello? It's me."
2. Gesturing to the person on the other side of the line.
3. Talking on msn/yahoo messenger with the person simultaneously.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Impact of an Obama defeat
As published in 'The Guardian', written by Jonathan Freedland. None of the following content is owned by me.
The feeling is familiar. I had it four years ago and four years before that: A sinking feeling in the stomach. It's a kind of physical pessimism which says: "Oh no, it's happening again. The Democrats are about to lose an election they should win - and it could not matter more."
Look at Tuesday's opinion polls, which have Mr John McCain either in a dead heat with Mr Barack Obama or narrowly ahead. Given the well-documented tendency of African-American candidates to perform better in polls than in elections - thanks to people who say they will vote for a black man but don't - this suggests Mr Obama is now trailing badly.
More troubling was the ABC News-Washington Post survey, which found Mr McCain ahead among white women by 53 per cent to 41 per cent. Two weeks ago, Mr Obama had a 15-per-cent lead among women. There is only one explanation for that turnaround, and it was not Mr McCain's tranquilliser of a convention speech: Mr Obama's lead has been crushed by the Palin bounce.
Alaskan Governor Palin has so far slipped out of reach, no revelation - no matter how jaw-dropping were it applied to a normal candidate - doing sufficient damage to slow her apparent march to power.
We know Palin is lying when she says she was against the notorious US$400-million "Bridge to Nowhere" project in Alaska - in fact, she campaigned for it - but she keeps repeating the claim anyway. She denounces the dipping of snouts in the Washington trough - but hired costly lobbyists to make sure Alaska got a bigger helping of federal dollars than any other state in the union.
She claims to be a fiscal conservative, but left the tiny town of Wasilla, where she served as mayor, saddled with debts it had never had before. She even claimed "per diem" allowances - taxpayers' money meant for out-of-town travel - when she was staying in her own house.
Yet, somehow, none of this is yet leaving a dent.
If Mrs Sarah Palin wins this for the charisma-deprived McCain, what will be the reaction? Yes, blue-state America will go into mourning once again. A generation of young Americans - who back Mr Obama in big numers - will turn cynical, concluding that politics doesn't work after all. And, most depressing, many African-Americans will decide that if even Mr Obama - with all his conspicuous gifts - could not win, then no black man can ever be elected president.
But what of the rest of the world? For Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by any US politician in living memory.
Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that he would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. If the free world could choose on Nov 4, Obama would be President.
Non-Americans sense that Mr Obama will not ride roughshod over the international system but will treat alliances and global institutions seriously: Mr McCain wants to bypass the United Nations in favour of a US-friendly League of Democracies. Mr McCain might talk a good game on climate change, but a repeated floor chant at the Republican convention was "Drill, baby, drill!", as if the solution to global warming were not a radical rethink of the US' entire energy system but more offshore oil rigs.
If Americans choose Mr McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world.
Until now, anti-Americanism has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if Mr McCain wins, that might well change. Suddenly, Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves.
And the manner of that decision will matter, too. If it is deemed to have been about race - that Mr Obama was rejected because of his colour - the world's verdict will be harsh. Even if it's not ethnic prejudice, but some other aspect of the culture wars that proves decisive, the point still holds.
For America to make a decision as grave as this one - while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars - on the trivial basis that a hockey mum is likeable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a fleeing from reality. Let's not forget, Mr McCain's campaign manager boasts that this eleciton is "not about the issues".
What does it say about today's America, that the world's esteem for Mr Obama is unwanted? If Americans reject him, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us - and, make no mistake, we shall hear it.
The feeling is familiar. I had it four years ago and four years before that: A sinking feeling in the stomach. It's a kind of physical pessimism which says: "Oh no, it's happening again. The Democrats are about to lose an election they should win - and it could not matter more."
Look at Tuesday's opinion polls, which have Mr John McCain either in a dead heat with Mr Barack Obama or narrowly ahead. Given the well-documented tendency of African-American candidates to perform better in polls than in elections - thanks to people who say they will vote for a black man but don't - this suggests Mr Obama is now trailing badly.
More troubling was the ABC News-Washington Post survey, which found Mr McCain ahead among white women by 53 per cent to 41 per cent. Two weeks ago, Mr Obama had a 15-per-cent lead among women. There is only one explanation for that turnaround, and it was not Mr McCain's tranquilliser of a convention speech: Mr Obama's lead has been crushed by the Palin bounce.
Alaskan Governor Palin has so far slipped out of reach, no revelation - no matter how jaw-dropping were it applied to a normal candidate - doing sufficient damage to slow her apparent march to power.
We know Palin is lying when she says she was against the notorious US$400-million "Bridge to Nowhere" project in Alaska - in fact, she campaigned for it - but she keeps repeating the claim anyway. She denounces the dipping of snouts in the Washington trough - but hired costly lobbyists to make sure Alaska got a bigger helping of federal dollars than any other state in the union.
She claims to be a fiscal conservative, but left the tiny town of Wasilla, where she served as mayor, saddled with debts it had never had before. She even claimed "per diem" allowances - taxpayers' money meant for out-of-town travel - when she was staying in her own house.
Yet, somehow, none of this is yet leaving a dent.
If Mrs Sarah Palin wins this for the charisma-deprived McCain, what will be the reaction? Yes, blue-state America will go into mourning once again. A generation of young Americans - who back Mr Obama in big numers - will turn cynical, concluding that politics doesn't work after all. And, most depressing, many African-Americans will decide that if even Mr Obama - with all his conspicuous gifts - could not win, then no black man can ever be elected president.
But what of the rest of the world? For Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by any US politician in living memory.
Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that he would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. If the free world could choose on Nov 4, Obama would be President.
Non-Americans sense that Mr Obama will not ride roughshod over the international system but will treat alliances and global institutions seriously: Mr McCain wants to bypass the United Nations in favour of a US-friendly League of Democracies. Mr McCain might talk a good game on climate change, but a repeated floor chant at the Republican convention was "Drill, baby, drill!", as if the solution to global warming were not a radical rethink of the US' entire energy system but more offshore oil rigs.
If Americans choose Mr McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world.
Until now, anti-Americanism has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if Mr McCain wins, that might well change. Suddenly, Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves.
And the manner of that decision will matter, too. If it is deemed to have been about race - that Mr Obama was rejected because of his colour - the world's verdict will be harsh. Even if it's not ethnic prejudice, but some other aspect of the culture wars that proves decisive, the point still holds.
For America to make a decision as grave as this one - while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars - on the trivial basis that a hockey mum is likeable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a fleeing from reality. Let's not forget, Mr McCain's campaign manager boasts that this eleciton is "not about the issues".
What does it say about today's America, that the world's esteem for Mr Obama is unwanted? If Americans reject him, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us - and, make no mistake, we shall hear it.
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