Contrary to expectation, Hillary Clinton has managed to beat her rival, Barack Obama, by convincing margins in the two large-delegate states of Ohio and Texas. Both were initially seen as safe Clinton states until Mr Obama went on a roll with super-Tuesday and began chipping away at Ms Clinton's vote base. It reached a point where many people were hoping that the results from these two states would be the other way round, and thus end the race to decide the Democrat nominee for president before the fight got messy. In the event, the fight has got messy in the last few days as Ms Clinton has gone on the attack against Mr Obama, and the tactic seems to have paid off. Also, Mr Obama stumbled when he responded inadequately to the news that an aide had talked to Canadian authorities about the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) in terms that were not in line with the Obama position. And since Ms Clinton has also won in the third of the four states that voted "" Rhode Island "" with Mr Obama thus managing to win only in Vermont, a race that seemed on the verge of ending is once again wide open. But in spite of Ms Clinton's triumph, Mr Obama remains a charismatic figure and the next round of voting will show whether or not he is able to regain momentum. The race, thus, remains a close one. It is worth recalling here that Ms Clinton's husband, Bill, managed to clinch the nomination only in June. Until then, it had been pretty iffy for him too. | |
| What the latest round of state primaries shows cannot be very comforting for the Democrats because it reveals a high degree of indecision in their party. By way of contrast, John McCain has now won the Republican Party's nomination. The choice before the Republicans has not been as hard as it has been for the Democrats, who, whatever the liberals may prefer, would have to be mindful of old prejudices amongst the majority of voters. To choose between a black man and a woman was never going to be easy, compared to a straight choice between rich, Anglo-Saxon males. One can only hope that when the time comes for the next American president to be elected, these prejudices would have greatly diminished so that America can get a new government from a different party. Not only have the Republicans been in power for seven years now, their president, George W Bush, has been amongst the most incompetent presidents since World War II. His stewardship of both foreign policy and the economy has been disastrous. So when Barack Obama says America is ready for change, he is absolutely right. |
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| The interesting point is that both Mr McCain and Mr Obama have cross-over appeal, which Ms Clinton does not have. Also, since the Democrats are fighting on the change platform, there must be some doubt about the ability of either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama to change things. Neither has been completely clear on where s/he stands on a whole range of complex issues. The US economy is sliding into a recession, and no one knows how long or deep it will be. On the foreign policy side, the disaster in Iraq offers no easy or clean solutions, making it very difficult for the next government to extricate the US from a very unpopular war. Like a monkey that puts its paw into a cookie jar, the US is stuck. Change, in these circumstances, will be very difficult to achieve, though a Democrat-controlled Congress (which is what one assumes will be in place) will make the job easier. |
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