Go back to the girl you came to the dance with!

Things are starting to look bleak for Barrack Obama with John McCain swinging into a lead in the Presidential polls. The possibility of a Republican retaining the office of the President, after disastrous eight years of George Bush , is almost unthinkable for me. I feel that Obama is rapidly losing his luster as a different kind of politician, and unless he changes his strategy drastically, he is going to lose this election decisively. I strongly feel that he should go back to his original message of being the candidate who can bring change to the Washington where nothing gets done due to politics along party lines. He is a new type of politician who can bring opposing parties together to work for the common good. With this theme, he was able to turn Hillary Clinton’s years of experience in Washington into a liability! He should be able to do that to McCain also. Instead, thanks to the constant, and mostly baseless, attacks by McCain, Obama is being forced to defend and counterattack-- and in the process is lowering himself to the level of a ‘typical’ politician! He has to stop this, and get back to his original message of change. Hopefully, he will select as his VP, someone who is good at the mudslinging and counter-punches. This will allow him to get back to his old self. I hate to admit this… Hillary would have been his best choice as VP in the current circumstances!

(I am also worried that the coming Democratic convention in Denver will be dominated by the Clintons, making Obama look weak and inexperienced)

Flunking the ‘Commander-in-chief’ test!

I am totally frustrated a to see the polls of the coming Presidential election, placing the Republican John McCain in a neck-to- neck race with Barack Obama, the Democrat. I just cannot figure this out as John McCain is an almost comical* ‘wrinkly white-haired guy’ who should be no match for the charismatic Obama. I guess there is still some unease about electing as President of USA (POTUS) a black candidate with an unusual background. This I can understand. But what I find most asinine is that McCain commands a 56% to 36% lead over Obama, as the person best qualified to be the commander-in- chief of USA. To me, the main reason McCain should not be elected as the POTUS, is that he will be a poor and dangerous commander-in-chief who can obliterate the whole world to dark ages with his crazy actions. As Commander-in-chief we need a calm person with good judgment, who does react on the spur of the moment. McCain is exactly opposite of this. He is a short tempered guy who makes bellicose statements without carefully thinking through. His reaction to recent Russian and Georgia conflict is a good example. What was he thinking when he threatened Russia, and pronounced that ‘we are all Georgians’ (like JFK’s ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’)? Was he trying to frighten Russia by implying USA will fight for Georgians? Does he not realize that our military is in a very weak position with most of the army stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan? McCain appears to have no clue to the nuances of the situation – that we need the oil rich Russia for buy our debts, help us to control Iran and North Korea, so on. Does he not know that the world has changed from the Cold War days, and that we need cooperation from other countries to keep USA safe and prosperous? In contrast, although he condemned the Russian attack, Barack Obama urged restraint by both parties, and use of diplomacy. (Of course, McCain campaign is going to use that reaction as proof of Obama being too weak to secure our country, and he being so macho!) Obama has an aura of confidence and calmness about him, and he has consistently demonstrated his ability to see the big picture – his opposition to the Iraq war, a sensible energy policy, a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, so on. He has the uncanny ability to work with people of differing opinions and interests, to achieve common good. He is exactly the right person to be our next President. We are safer with him as our commander –in-chief, than with the war hungry ‘shoot from the hip’ McCain.

(I really enjoy the gaffes of McCain and the reaction to them in T.V. late-night shows and blogosphere-- him offering his wife to a wet T- shirt competition, his cheese aisle press conference, his confusion about al-Qaeda and Iran, so on. But the thought of him somehow stumbling into Presidency gives me shivers!)