Hooray for Hills

Pennsylvania! Oh, blessed relief.
The 10 per cent margin between Hillary and Barack keeps Hillary in the race and allows America the time it needs to clue up.

Not that Michael Moore has clued up.
What a shock to receive his newsletter urging his fans to vote against Hillary Clinton.
But Moore, while a brave agitator and man of causes, is no political Einstein. He is a big on the naive side, I think. And in this case, he is holding a grudge against Hillary's error of judgement in voting for Iraq. He is joining the Fox-revved mindless mob who refuse to hear Hillary's oft-reiterated words "if I knew then what I know now".
Moore has never failed in prescience?
Guess what?
He is lacking prescience right now!

The man is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. So fie upon him.

Of course, Barack Obama is a fine candidate. The Democratic Party threw up a lineup of stunning candidates - Richardson, Biden, Edwards et al. Each of these men had outstanding merit. Obama does, too, although I am not so sure about his wife.

Hillary has an edge on all of the other candidates - and she has proved, with this long campaign, that she has guts and stamina on an Olympian scale.
One watches the relentlessness of the campaign and just boggles at how long and hard it is - a marathon to end all marathons. She has impressive self-discipine - which is the hard edge that the Right Wing pundits forever decry. Pity they don't have a bit more of it. Self-discipline involves self-sacrifice.

I continue to believe in Hillary Clinton and am delighted at this strong win.
I think the Democratic race needs to claw its way on simply so that the American public can overcome the Right Wing mantras about Clintons - and see this strong, courageous, well-informed and experienced woman is what the country really needs.

Fingers and toes crossed as the game moves on.

Get Hillary - its the only choice.

It is all getting rather silly - and very worrying.
I watched what we were able to see on TV of the ABC Hillary/Barack debate, topping up content with online clips. Unless one is there, it is very hard these days to get any report which is not skewed with opinion.
The big loser of the debate according to all and sundry was the ABC for its pussyfooting and puny questioning.

Now, some of the commentators are saying that the ABC's biggest fault was that it was anti-Obama and therefore pro Clinton.

We have reached a stage of this nightmarish primary in which almost anything at all is deemed anti-Obama. While Hillary is a prime target for all the bile of the right with its entrenched Clinton hate agenda, Obama is protected by that exquisite American prerequisite for political correctness.

Since all criticism of Obama can be seen as racist, there can be no criticism. It backfoots Hillary badly - and puts a compromise on the open blather of the political pundits. So, if one is going to snipe and carp and criticise and keep that old media ball rolling with beat-up controversy, the middle class white woman with her sinful husband is the only way to go.

Oh, what a Catch 22.

Staying the course

People keep asking me, in sombre tones, how I think Hillary is going. Does she still have a chance?

Heavens, yes!

Take nothing for granted in politics - or football or horseracing or, for that matter, ice skating. Let us not forget the Aussie ice skater who won gold because of the fact that he was coming last. When the whole pack of racers fell over, our boy at the back was the only one left standing and he glided in triumphant.

My thoughts on Hillary are that so long as Hillary believes in Hillary, I believe in Hillary.

From the outset, I have had an absolute certainty that she is the best possible candidate for America's next president. This strong feeling has not left me.

But, of course, one has to watch the white-anting, the endless Clinton-bashing from Fox and the virulent right wing.
There would seem to be a school for Clinton-bashing and the demeaning of liberals in the USA, so well-honed and consistent is it. I have described it as a "culture" and I see it growing in a petrie dish of snipes and sneers.
Someone should do a PhD on it - since it is a phenomenon as fascinating as it is repulsive. I goes hand-in-hand with the dumbing down of the people, I suspect.

Certainly, there is no more popular target than intelligent people - which bring Clinton and Obama right into the sightlines.

So here we are, with Fox as the only constant news source from the USA - having to endure the sneers from a clone pile of awful anchors. What a wonderful weapon they are for McCain - who can just sit back and let them do the dirty work, and even choose his Vice Presidential candidate for him. If they can make it Huckabee, they will.

As for Hillary - she has the grit, the spine, the wisdom and the sense of history to know that persistence is an essential key to achievement. Women have had to fight long and hard to get where they are today - and to get further, well, it was never going to be easy.

Hillary has said she is in there for the long haul.
Hillary has the goods. Sooner or later the delegates in all their power, will notice that tenacity, power and knowledge are highly desirable qualities in a president.

Perchance the voters will, too.

I wait in positive spirit.

Black and white

Geraldine Ferraro has resigned because of the disgrace of saying that Obama would not be where he is today in the primary if he was not black.

But, surely Obama is as white as he is black.

Obama is 50-50.

I am finding it hard to comprehend why he has forsaken white legacy - rejected that white blood line to brand himself "African American". Is this not courting the black vote?

Obama is African and American.

How would his poor mother feel, were she alive, to know that her role in his being has been discarded?

Good onto Hills!

Hillary had more faith in Hillary than the rest of us. Fie upon us.
Look at these uplifting wins in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island today. Let's hope Pennsylvania is on its way.
This will make it pretty even as it goes off to the convention. A cliffhanger to the end.

I am so happy about Hillary's wins today.

Annoyingly, I have to watch coverage of it on Fox news. The Fox election coverage has been nauseating me for some time. Well, ever since I have had to watch it.
It is a disservice that Rupert Murdoch does to the USA, allowing Australia only to see 24-hour US news from Fox. CNN is shown on cable but it is a special Pacific version which is tediously dominated by business and finance. Sky is dominated by sport.
So, if one is interested in general US news, Fox is it.

Hence, we have those ugly, smug Fox anchors unctuously faking objectivity in Democratic coverage.

Beggars can't be choosers. So I watch avidly deep into the Australian night.
It is stressful.


But at least there are signs that not all of the USA is brainwashed by Fox.
The people are recognising that Hillary has the goods that the country really needs.

Did we say racist?

Once the racism can is opened, everything gets nasty.
None nastier than Bill O'Reilly from Fox. "O'Racist" Bob Cesca has called him in the Huffington Post.

Cesca has written on O'Reilly's reaction to that self-same Michelle Obama quote - how, for the first time, she feels reason to be proud of her country. He thinks O'Reilly should apologise and resign.
Fat chance.

But Cesca is on the ball in pinning O'Reilly on the White Supremacist line.

O'Reilly said:

And I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that's how she really feels -- that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever -- then that's legit. We'll track it down.

Cesca comments:

Lynching? Party? Unless there's evidence? So we're to understand from Bill O'Reilly that if someone might be relating a certain level of dissatisfaction with America's present status and chief executive, that they deserve to be tracked down by Bill O'Reilly's Lynch Mob?

It doesn't even matter what Michelle Obama said. We do know that FOX News repeatedly misquoted Mrs. Obama's statement and regardless of what she said, nothing -- no words, intentions or deeds justify the unhinged spike in Bill O'Reilly's bigoted, splotchy blood pressure to the point of wanting to "track it down" with his "lynching party." She could've said something like, "Bill O'Reilly is a splotchy dillweed who enjoys savory, soapy shower falafels," and it still wouldn't justify this flagrantly racist "lynching" analogy.

Indeed, this is where racism sinks to its worst depths. And where we cringe and, hand-in-hand with Michelle Obama, feel ashamed that the USA gives such broad approval to this terrible man and his vociferous ilk.

Michelle Obama means change all right

Michelle Obama is showing her colours. If the American public sat up and took notice rather than gushed at the idea that "change" is a political policy, they might restrain their enthusiasm for the Obama push - and perhaps save the day and turn towards Hillary Clinton.
Michelle Obama has announced that having her husband running for president has provided the first thing IN HER LIFE to make her proud of her country!
All these years she has felt no pride in her homeland?
Apparently not.
Reading biographical material about here reveals that she has operated for most of her career on a heavy black agenda. She appears to be an angry black woman, a black activist, a racist - and, indeed, if she is American's First Lady, there sure will be some "change".

Of course, if Obama goes on to keep winning, if he is the 2008 Democrat presidential candidate, one is going to see another swing in the voting. It is just what the Republicans want. The American public, given the option of a black president or a war hero president will go for the war hero.

And this is what I now predict.

Obama on the rise and rise and rise

Hillary already has been begging the country just to remember that the important thing for November is to vote Democratic. There must be change of Government. She is a wise woman and, I fear, she can see the writing on the wall.
It is not looking too good for her. She will have to pull a rabbit out of the hat - as the media keeps gnawing at her image, carrying on about botox, making ugly kerfuffles over Chelsea, sniping about Bill... making up whatever it can get away with.
It's rough.

Of course, many of the Obama simpletons who are bouncing around, high as kites on the novelty of a political experience, think that "change" is something Obama has invented.

They think that "change" is a policy!

I am very sad watching the latest Caucus figures emerging, still boggling at how utterly stupid the very essence of caucuses are. Only 2 per cent of the registered Republicans turned up at their Washington caucuses? The weather was bad? They did not bother with their political responsibility. I just hope those Republicans stay indoors again in November when the big election is on. Their political apathy will be useful then.

Meanwhile, Obama is going from strength to strength in these evolving primaries - and I see Teddy Kennedy rubbing his hands together because he will have control. I see Oprah priming up to dub herself a president-maker responsible, with her new best buddy Michelle Obama, for a bright new black agenda.
I see a lot of people around Obama, pulling strings - but I do not see a man with great depth of potential in his own right.

I never did - not from that first encounter in NH, when I went to the Seniors Centre to get up close and personal with him, to listen to him and see what he was all about. That was when my hopes melted away in a puddle of Obama rhetoric. He is a sophist. He is a sophist. There was no "there" there.
I left feeling a bit empty and disappointed.

It made the deciding factor for this old political animal. I had been to see and hear Hillary and I needed to know how Obama matched up. And there was a man with no real policy. Just fluent sophistry. That was the point at which I phoned the Hillary Campaign and offered my services.

So, of course, I think my choice is the right choice.
I think Hillary Clinton is absolutely exceptional - a very able woman with an informed grasp on almost every aspect of most ever domestic and international political issue. That is pretty rare and I'd challenge any other candidate to match her erudition.

Sadly, the common voter neither knows nor cares. Many have some media-induced idea of a Clinton agenda. They have believed what the media has told them - that she is cold and ambitious, which are taken to be evils in a woman, albeit strengths in a man.
The media wins.

The media has marketed Obama as a favoured Dem. It suits the precious youth demographic which is all the media wants to know about. His is quite a marketable commodity, of course.

Obama is really very nice in myriad ways. He is superbly fluent, like an elegant preacher. His books are fantastic. I rather fell in love with him when I read him.
He is tall and handsome.

But the very "change" business that the media has marketed and the young have embraced with such enthusiasm, is still turning me off.

Give us a break!
Elections are all about change. They are for change

What actual change is Obama promising? Just change.
His policies are more philosophic than political nitty gritty. He promises hope. Nice things. He promises to bring the cost of living down with tax breaks and to raise the minimum wage. He does not want anyone to be poor. He wants college to be affordable..so long as students work for the peace corps in return. This is their pleasant payback for tuition. Of course this is very appealing to the young.
Obama is very appealing.
The young are rapt.

Now, in the grand scheme of potential presidents, he is a pretty classy possibility. There is no doubt about that.
The Democratic candidates made a lineup of exceptional individuals. Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, John Edwards...and, of course, the brilliant Hillary Clinton.
Each one had fine potential as a president. America can be proud that it can, in fact, line up such an array of pure class.

And from fair Florida...

I have to say that I am a bit sad for the old Giuliani. He could not have made a greater mess of the primary. Who on earth was his strategist? Someone who is not going to get work as a strategist again, I suspect.
Apart from being too arrogant to go on the campaign trail and thinking that networking in Florida alone was going to win Florida, his other error, methinks, was the endless reiteration of his heroic role in 9/11. He could not understand that capitalising on 9/11 in any form at all is plain offensive to most Americans. I hear the rabid rightist commentators on Fox saying that Giuliani's failure lay in his sex life - his several marriages. Florida should be judgmental about a man who has married more than once? Florida?
Oh, Fox, you do fill the airwaves with some arrant nonsense. It is a terrible disadvantage Downunder to have only Fox as 24-hour news from the US. CNN does an Asian/Pacific service which loads it with endless Asian finance reports and Sky loads itself with sport. So, we are pretty much stuck with Fox, since we are on Rupert's cable. It is peerless in its reportage of a world crisis - but the rest of the time it pads itself with incestuous studio chat and preoccupative Clinton-bashing.

But if we are talking about wives, surely Fred Thompson would be the turnoff with his blonde bimbo wife and small child - at his age! Repulsive man in my opinion and I was glad to see the back of him in the primary.

The ranks are, indeed, thinning out.


John McCain surprises me no end with his steady growth. My encounter with him in New Hampshire was anything but impressive. I more or less wrote him off. It was a wickedly cold and wet day and it was an outdoor rally-style event in Manchester. McCain, with his blonde and young-looking wife, was very late but the old veterans waiting to support him were stoic old blokes who had been through military training and were not going to let anyone forget their self-discipline. There is a potent movement of veterans in the US. They wear clothes to identify themselves and have car numberplates identifying themselves. They expect respect for their service and they get it.
These days, they are tough old things and they are keen to have one of their own in the White House.

McCain was the least impressive speaker of all those whose events I attended. He was the only one who had a teleprompter.
He seemed old. I figured he would never last the distance of relentless campaigning. Indeed, his campaign was in terribly disarray mid-year. Low funds, staff firings. But the old soldier marched on.
He seems to have gone from strength to strength and he has even been more articulate. He is very, very conservative, more so than Goldwater was, I am told. But he is not a nut case extremist.
The voters are culling the extremists right out. They are not stupid.
It is good to see.

The last of the ratbags, and I am not counting Ron Paul among the ratbags, is Huckabee and, despite Fox promoting him on a daily basis, it seems there is not enough money among his trailer park supporters to fund a campaign competing with the big business boys. Then again, Mitt Romney has the billions and he, too, is being trounced.
The old soldier is what America trusts. A war veteran. A prisoner of war.

I am sad that John Edwards has called it a day. He had no choice. He had no chance. But, my heavens, he worked hard. The problem was that he was not saying anything different from the policy he was espousing when he campaigned in NH in 2003 - and I got to stage of thinking I'd scream if he said one more time that his father had been a mill worker.

So far as the Obama/Hillary race is going, well, it is not making me radiantly happy.
They are two stunning contenders.
My perfect solution would be Hillary as President and Barack as Vice - with him running and taking the presidency 8 years on.

But to see them sniping and to see ugly images such as those of Teddy Kennedy whispering in Obama's ear as Obama looks conspiratorially in Hillary's direction. Or the image of Barack turning his back on Hillary as she approached to shake hands...
This is not good enough.
Obama loses points again in my book.
My reservations about him grow.
And, it is no secret that I have found Hillary Clinton to be the best-equipped and most able of all the candidates.
And, so we watch the evolving fates and the wild machinations of the US media.

What a fascinating business it is.

The racism card

Credulity is taken for a long walk and refused water.
What warped interpretations are being aired by the mainstream media on the issue of Obama vs Clinton vs race?

How can they manipulate it so that, suddenly, Clinton is waving a race card?
It is not Clinton but Obama who has been using the most racially-conscious and racially-motivated identity in the world - by which, of course, I mean Oprah.

Obama has taken Oprah out on the campaign - Oprah, the massive marketing machine. Oprah, "the colour purple" of contemporary black pride. She endorses, people buy.

Obama has written two books about race - lest the entirety of the US forgets. Well, it has forgotten, obviously.

But, when it comes to the race card, the white guilt, the endless light-stepping fear of political incorrectness, turns it back on itself. Whites are guilty of racism for being white.

Why does Obama not just fess up - campaign honestly for the black vote?

Watching and wondering

This is a white-knuckle primary - even if one is not committed to any particular candidate. The fates seem fragile, the voters fickle, the candidates' teams allegedly coming up with some sly tricks...
There is an air of desperation, particularly from the Obama camp Not only has Oprah continued to keep pressuring for the black vote but also there are tales of some not quite kosher dealings with potential Hillary voters. Tsk tsk.
And still Hillary inches ahead.

Then on the Republican side, well, this is far more colourful than the Dems, as it turns out.
There is Mormon Mitt Romney blanketing the media with an unprecdented volume of advertising. I heard that more than 50 per cent of the ads running on television in Carolina were Mitt Romney's campaign ads. No wonder they didn't vote for him. They were offended by the overkill.


And it goes to show that you really can't buy the presidency. Mitt is the richest candidate and the one spending his own money in his desperate bid to rule the world - and it ain't paying off.

But what of Giuliani?
He was my frontrunner choice for the GOP.
What on earth is he doing skipping the other states and hanging out in Florida? That is the oddest gamble. High stakes, Rudy!
But I am sure you are working the rooms of the retirement state - just as you worked the rooms of New Hampshire.

Not that it gave you the win.
Funny old McCain scored the state. Funny old McCain is doing rather well. Surprising, really, since he did strike me as just a bit out of it. But he certainly has shown the old stamina on the campaign trail.

Sigh of relief

Bravo to Hillary.
Bravo to the campaign workers of New Hampshire - all those door-knockers and phoners, placard-holders, web reporters, ushers and organisers. I wish I had had more time there to add more of my energy to the cause. I'd love to have been there today! How rewarding.

But what a white-knuckle ride the last week has been.

The Barack phenomenon in Iowa caused me to sit down and study Barack and Michelle Obama in a way I had not done since last year when I arrived in New Hampshire. Then, I was making sure of which candidate I was going to support - and Obama was definitely the main rival to Hillary when it came to that choice. I did my homework and made my selection, just as the New Hampshire voters have now done.
And I understand how hard it was for them.

The beauty of the Primary is the quality of the candidates who are out there vying for the presidency. There are some outstanding politicians in the mix.

I decided early on that Obama did not show the political savvy and personal discipline that Hillary has. I think his "change" platform is a bit on the glib side - since the election itself is about change and each and every candidate is about change. Hearing people say that Clinton or Edwards have "stolen Obama's message of change" just makes me laugh. What on earth do they think this whole epic is for?

However, I do like Obama and admire him. He is a beautiful writer. I like some of his philosophies and I am even gaining a grudging admiration for his fiesty wife. She is a magnificent orator. Better than her husband, I dare to suggest. But I can't help but sense a racial agenda.
Interestingly, there is a touch of the Bill and Hillarys to the Obamas - a couple of high-achieving, Ivy League lawyers.
I hope they have their day. A bit later.

However, while I went out and about and checked out as many candidates as I could in among the house parties and town hall meetings of the unique New Hampshire political process, Hillary shone forth as my number one. The more interaction I had with her, the more this decision was endorsed. This woman has the goods. It has nothing to do with her being a woman as such. It is about the woman she is - a devastatingly smart, coherent, balanced, prudent, internationally sensitive and highly self-disciplined individual.
So, I am thrilled to bits at this significant victory.

The race is far from over. Far, far, far.

There will be more strategists and volunteers slaving away in South Carolina, another important Primary. And then the rest. It is a long road of many states and many votes.
Hillary is looking tired now - but she and the others are astonishing in their stamina. And whoever wins the primary goes on to campaign for the presidency and then, when they win the presidency, they leap into the arduous business of being president. Oh, my - most of us would run from the very idea of such an onerous responsibility. But there ya go. Politicians are different beasts.

The Iowa washup

Can Obama do in New Hampshire what he just did in Iowa - bring out the young voters en masse? It is what Howard Dean failed to do four years ago. He seemed feted by the young and yet they simply dematerialised when the cold night of caucus turned up.

In Obama's case, they followed through in the cold night of caucus. They put their bodies where their rally cheers had been.

I continue to harbour reservations about Obama - especially since I noted a new cadence in his voice, one taken directly from the "I have a dream" delivery of Martin Luther King. Cunning marketing ploy. Congratulations to whichever smart strategist groomed him up on that.

I would like Obama to be president in a few years, when that awful, pushy and divisive wife of his has learned a few things. We place First Ladies in power, too, you know. Michelle Obama is dangerous.
And I would like Obama to find some substance - since he is mainly sophistry.

So, why did he poll so well in Iowa? Could it be the Oprah factor? I bet she thinks so - and maybe it is so. Ah, and what a lot that would say about media power.

Talking of which, that featured appearance on the Jay Leno show, the much-publicised first show since the writers' strike, did no harm to Mike Huckabee. It was the most valuable sales pitch in the world. It made me wonder about Jay. Here we have another media celebrity throwing his weight into the electoral process. On the eve of the caucus, he provides national exposure which can only be compared to endorsement.

Huckabee did very well on Leno. Leno cunningly had all the old footage of the fat Huckabee who is now a slim Huckabee. If there is one thing Americans admire, it is a successful weight-loser. Vast amounts of television time are devoted to diet and weight loss. And Leno leaned away from the extreme right views espoused by Huckabee - moderated him nicely for the broad, mainstream audience. Intelligent design was not mentioned at all. We just got that very, very personable man. Oh my, he is a good candidate. He has a fatherly, protective, reliable, good natured facade and a lovely sense of humour. He is disarmingly attractive package.

So where was Hillary in all of this? She has the star of husband Bill shining at a discreet distance - and she looked and sounded wonderful. The pundits say she fared poorly because of her voting record in the Senate, because she was not against the war on Iraq, because she has never recanted that mistake... Gee, the negative market is tough. I don't know how many times she has to say "if she knew what she knows now she would never have voted as she did then". A zillion times is not enough. Perchance she is damned for ever on that cautionary stance which is seen and endlessly promoted by the Fox-driven anti-Clinton push as her buttering her political bread. If the Clinton campaign has made mistakes, not placing more emphasis on regaining this lost ground is at the top of the list. They have chosen to play ostrich. Wrong. They need to penetrate the dubious masses who have listened to Fox.

Hillary remains the candidate for the thinking voter, however. The thinking voter sees straight through Fox.

I was not at all unhappy to see John Edwards get some recognition in Iowa. One can only admire the utter dedication and determination of that man, the unswerving self-belief and the pure stamina in campaigning towards the presidency - again.
I like him.
I was sad Richardson fared poorly. I like him, too.
I was sorry that Biden and Dodd were presented with the writing on the wall and, wisely, stepped back. Good men, both. But there's simply not enough room for all these good men.

Romney is not a good man. I am enjoying watching this become evident. Romney and the mormon camp tried to look sweetie goody-twoshoes, happy families - until things started going against them. Then the facade came down and the dirty tricks and venom oozed out of the campaign like political pus. Romney must lose, for the sake of the USA and the world.

For all his sinister religious extremism, even Huckabee is a better choice.

Counting down, holding breath

The countdown is on. Even from this vast distance I can feel the hype in Nashua as the primary voting day approaches.
I've seen the support bases out and about in New Hampshire - the Obama crowd versus the Clinton crowd versus the Giuliani crowd.
They are different beasts. Obama would seem to have made up a vast amount of distance catching up to Clinton as the vote approaches but I still wonder, having looked over that supporter base, if they are really all viable voters. Something about them reminds me of the Howard Dean phenomenon in the last election. An ephemera of enthusiasts.

The Clinton camp has always looked stronger insofar as Hillary has a large body of older, earnest voters who are serious about issues.

Perhaps I am saying that the voters mirror the candidates.

The Giuliani mob was besuited and staid. McCain's were strongly veteran families. I did not get a chance to see a Huckabee crowd. I wonder if I could have coped with all those creationists. Perhaps it's better I missed that lot.
The Edwards and Richardson crowd were more mixed and I sensed that there were many among them just checking out the candidates. They both are impressive, as it happens.

But now the crunch comes and the wheat will be sorted from the chaff.

But perhaps not immediately. Winning in Iowa or New Hampshire may be seen as a very good sign but the race is still only partly run. There are 50 states, all with different rules and regulations in the electoral business, and they will have to have their say - right down to the conventions. Perhaps there will be hung votes.

We can only wait and see, knowing that at the grassroots level of the campaigns, those phones will be running hot, emails will be flying, door-knockers will be out - and I, sadly, will not be among them.

Oprah - turning up the race card.

In the past few weeks, I have been seething with frustration at being away from New Hampshire. It is such a critical time.
And, heavens, there has been Oprah to contend with.
On that subject, perhaps it is better I am not there. The squillionaire TV star out on the campaign trail is just too much for me. My blood boils. Who the hell does she think she is? What a complete moron is Barak Obama for taking her onboard - as if he does not have the clout or the wit or the media interest and he needs to lean on her popularity. Well, that is probably so. Whenever one comes in contact with Obama, it is a suprisingly underwhelming experience. Anticlimactic. There is no "there" there. He is bland, bland, bland.
So, yes, he needs someone to grab attention on his behalf - and he has Oprah.
The only problem with this is that Oprah turns everything into a racial issue. Suddenly the fact that Obama is black becomes more important than it was or should be.
I think Oprah has an appalling cheek to use her media popularity in this way.
I think she thinks she has the power to control the vote - she thinks she is so bloody important. Oh, what money does to people.
What I don't think is that the voting public is easily suckered - and I suspect that she may have done Obama a disservice.
From this vast distance, I do not weep.

Instead, I quietly cheer for Hillary. By default, I think that egomaniacal Oprah has done her a favour.

As for trying to pin Joe Biden down on the race issue in the last Democratic debate. Oh really. Isn't it clear that the only candidate playing a race card is pushy Oprah?
Oops. Did I call her a candidate?

Hmmm.

Australian role model

Being on the other side of the world does not distance one from the campaigns of the primary. It clarifies them - crystal with objectivity. Connectivity is all - and so the reports and newsletters keep on coming in and one checks in with the campaign office sites and sees how the keen bean volunteers are going.

And, we have had the interesting phenomenon of our own campaigns here in Australia, our equivalent, a Federal Election - which delivers the Prime Minister in the form of the leader of the elected party.

We have just scored a new Prime Minister - and a government which moves from right to left, from conservative to liberal. It is an unfortunate irony that the Australian conservatives call themselves "liberal".

The election was a landslide to the left.

It omens well for the US and Hillary Clinton. The US is the last right wing government in the English-speaking world.

Around the world, people finally are rebelling against Iraq, economic rationalism, worker exploitation, dumbed down education, inequality in health care...

And so will it be in the US.