Its no secret to the readers of this blog, I am a big Obama fan and have been for a while. Obviously I am not alone, the country loves him and now the world at large is giving him his due credits. His every move gets watched, his every action gets analyzed and replayed on national TV. Tough position to be in, but for the most part he has done it right, and I like to point out to some of his recent actions which has caught my attention ( as brought to me by the likes of huffingtonpost.com ,nytimes.com, cnn.com,latimes.com and so on).

1) His recent speech in Cairo to the Muslims of the world- beyond the obvious attempt at placating the Muslims ( “Maleekum Salaam”, the word “holy Kuran” not that common from US presidents), the speech was great on substance as well- he talked about Israel Palestine peace efforts, rising fundamentalism and woman’s right. Tough subjects to handle but its a good start and he has shown dexterity, maturity and guts in dealing with them. What remains to be seen is how the Muslim world reciprocates, although initial response is encouraging. Here’s what Deepak Chopra thought about the speech and the challenges ahead.

2) Obamas speech to Notre Dame where he made the famous call to service, for the graduating students and I quote verbatim “When you serve, it doesn’t just improve your community; it makes you part of your community. It breaks down walls. It fosters cooperation. And when that happens – when people set aside their difference to work in common effort towards a common good; when they struggle together, and sacrifice together, and learn from one another — all things are possible”

3) Actually even before he made this call to service as President, back in 2007 he had this powerful speech on serving the nation. Some startling statistics in his speech- 1 out of 12 American works for non-profit sector and 115 non-profits are launched every day.

4) Probably inspired by Obama’s call to service speech(s) , recently a criagslist like website was launched by progressive forces in public-private partnership ( Google, Adobe, Youtube, Craigslist Foundation). This is really amazing and I am so excited about the potential it holds. Hopefully a new chapter in volunteerism will begin and the site will match those willing to offer service to those who badly need it and have no where to turn to.

5) President Obama was greeted by anti-abortion protesters when he showed up for commencement speech to the Notre Dame graduating class of 2009. He handled that pretty well too , a balancing act where he had to acknowledge pro-life groups as well as liberal view points like a woman’s right to choose. He talked about seeking common grounds and for the opposing groups to see each others perspective and respect it, a conciliator-in-chief!

6)If you thought I liked everything Obama does, you be surprised, I have my shares of complains too:-) We had a monster of deficit already from Bush’s legacy, add to that the TARP, auto bailouts, stimulus plan and we have a perfect storm in the making. When will we ever get to paying them back? Most of this deficit is being financed by foreigners, Americans already are deep in debt with very low savings rate. China holds around .76 trillion dollars worth of US treasury, Japan holds around .69 trillion dollars ( source US treasury), that means US is at the mercy of these nations to keep holding its treasury bonds. If and when they decide to sell US treasury ( fed up with this unsustainable deficit), be a nightmare, interest rates will shoot up ( they have already doubled from 2% to around 4% on 10 year bonds in the last three months, reflecting those concerns) and whatever little disposable income US consumer is left with, will vanish into servicing loan and mortgage payments. A financial tsunami is in the making, get the details here from the most recent and most authoritative study done so far by Professor Alan Auerbach and William Gale of University of California, Berkeley.

That’s it for now, been a busy two weeks for me, tired of frequent traveling to client sites Will pen down some more thoughts in other areas- the recent Air France crash and the implication for maintenance industry, Killing of the Abortion Doctor ( Dr Tiller) , the Sarah Palin controversy with David Letterman- lots of stuff, keep watching this space!

>
Its no secret to the readers of this blog, I am a big Obama fan and have been for a while. Obviously I am not alone, the country loves him and now the world at large is giving him his due credits. His every move gets watched, his every action gets analyzed and replayed on national TV. Tough position to be in, but for the most part he has done it right, and I like to point out to some of his recent actions which has caught my attention ( as brought to me by the likes of huffingtonpost.com ,nytimes.com, cnn.com,latimes.com and so on).

1) His recent speech in Cairo to the Muslims of the world- beyond the obvious attempt at placating the Muslims ( “Maleekum Salaam”, the word “holy Kuran” not that common from US presidents), the speech was great on substance as well- he talked about Israel Palestine peace efforts, rising fundamentalism and woman’s right. Tough subjects to handle but its a good start and he has shown dexterity, maturity and guts in dealing with them. What remains to be seen is how the Muslim world reciprocates, although initial response is encouraging. Here’s what Deepak Chopra thought about the speech and the challenges ahead.

2) Obamas speech to Notre Dame where he made the famous call to service, for the graduating students and I quote verbatim “When you serve, it doesn’t just improve your community; it makes you part of your community. It breaks down walls. It fosters cooperation. And when that happens – when people set aside their difference to work in common effort towards a common good; when they struggle together, and sacrifice together, and learn from one another — all things are possible”

3) Actually even before he made this call to service as President, back in 2007 he had this powerful speech on serving the nation. Some startling statistics in his speech- 1 out of 12 American works for non-profit sector and 115 non-profits are launched every day.

4) Probably inspired by Obama’s call to service speech(s) , recently a criagslist like website was launched by progressive forces in public-private partnership ( Google, Adobe, Youtube, Craigslist Foundation). This is really amazing and I am so excited about the potential it holds. Hopefully a new chapter in volunteerism will begin and the site will match those willing to offer service to those who badly need it and have no where to turn to.

5) President Obama was greeted by anti-abortion protesters when he showed up for commencement speech to the Notre Dame graduating class of 2009. He handled that pretty well too , a balancing act where he had to acknowledge pro-life groups as well as liberal view points like a woman’s right to choose. He talked about seeking common grounds and for the opposing groups to see each others perspective and respect it, a conciliator-in-chief!

6)If you thought I liked everything Obama does, you be surprised, I have my shares of complains too:-) We had a monster of deficit already from Bush’s legacy, add to that the TARP, auto bailouts, stimulus plan and we have a perfect storm in the making. When will we ever get to paying them back? Most of this deficit is being financed by foreigners, Americans already are deep in debt with very low savings rate. China holds around .76 trillion dollars worth of US treasury, Japan holds around .69 trillion dollars ( source US treasury), that means US is at the mercy of these nations to keep holding its treasury bonds. If and when they decide to sell US treasury ( fed up with this unsustainable deficit), be a nightmare, interest rates will shoot up ( they have already doubled from 2% to around 4% on 10 year bonds in the last three months, reflecting those concerns) and whatever little disposable income US consumer is left with, will vanish into servicing loan and mortgage payments. A financial tsunami is in the making, get the details here from the most recent and most authoritative study done so far by Professor Alan Auerbach and William Gale of University of California, Berkeley.

That’s it for now, been a busy two weeks for me, tired of frequent traveling to client sites Will pen down some more thoughts in other areas- the recent Air France crash and the implication for maintenance industry, Killing of the Abortion Doctor ( Dr Tiller) , the Sarah Palin controversy with David Letterman- lots of stuff, keep watching this space!

Seems like India has found its own Barack Obama in the young Rahul Gandhi. Actually not exactly, there are similarities but stark differences as well, first and foremost – Rahul being a product of India’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and second he is no “black” in India. I have always been opposed to dynasty rule , more so in a country of billion plus population where you would think there’s no dearth of talent . When Rahul Gandhi started making news couple of months ago, my first inclination was to brush him aside, he is a kid ( although not exactly at 38-39), what can he do..I wondered.

As the Indian elections started drawing closer and more and more of my friends begin talking about it, my curiosity found me visiting political news pages of Indian dailies like Times of India and Hindustan Times more so often. To my surprise I see Oped columns on how Rahul Gandhi is aggressively campaigning across India and about to change electoral map in UP, a state bigger than Britain and France combined. This novice had started making some serious dent on a state dominated by casteist politics and regional parties like SP and BSP.

Rahul seems to have borrowed a page from Obama’s winning strategy- appeal to the youth, appeal to the poor and avoid divisive and negative politics (of religion and caste so prevalent in India). I am no political analyst but it sounded like he had a solid strategy in going after big prized state like UP ( just like Obama targeted big states like Texas , Ohio and Florida – California was already democratic leaning so wasn’t that tough winning it over).

I wonder how Rahul Gandhi engineered his strategies. Obama had a solid team of political strategist like David Alexrod and Bill Burton and a strong support from liberal leaning new media outlets like huffingtonpost.com, moveon.org and the traditional media also had somewhat favorable bias for him (other than Fox news of course!). I did not see any such supporting factor in favor of the younger scion of Gandhi family. Web 2.0 style campaigning pioneered by Obama obviously wouldn’t have worked for India either, given the low penetration of internet in rural India. This makes his achievement even more commendable.

What do I think of the overall election results. Obviously I am happy, not because Congress won or BJP lost, but because in this clear mandate for Congress we can look forward to a stable government less susceptible to black mail of coalition politics. I had started to think that for India the days of a single party majority are gone and the coalition government is the new reality where getting anything done is always a big challenge. I am glad that Indian democracy is alive and kicking , which can humble the old and complacent and bring new leaders to the forefront. It is yet to be seen how the three troika of Congress party- Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi use their new found political capital.

Rahul may be the change India was looking for or he may turn out to be a damp squib- miserably failing to live up to his larger than life image, only time can tell. For now, he has proved his skeptics wrong, including me , and I congratulate him for his outstanding victory. Today is his day in the sun…and a testimony to the power of youth! I have already started feeling good and happy to be on the right side of history..of rooting for whoever challenges the status quo..whoever makes a sincere effort for a better tomorrow..be it Obama or Rahul Gandhi.

>
Seems like India has found its own Barack Obama in the young Rahul Gandhi. Actually not exactly, there are similarities but stark differences as well, first and foremost – Rahul being a product of India’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and second he is no “black” in India. I have always been opposed to dynasty rule , more so in a country of billion plus population where you would think there’s no dearth of talent . When Rahul Gandhi started making news couple of months ago, my first inclination was to brush him aside, he is a kid ( although not exactly at 38-39), what can he do..I wondered.

As the Indian elections started drawing closer and more and more of my friends begin talking about it, my curiosity found me visiting political news pages of Indian dailies like Times of India and Hindustan Times more so often. To my surprise I see Oped columns on how Rahul Gandhi is aggressively campaigning across India and about to change electoral map in UP, a state bigger than Britain and France combined. This novice had started making some serious dent on a state dominated by casteist politics and regional parties like SP and BSP.

Rahul seems to have borrowed a page from Obama’s winning strategy- appeal to the youth, appeal to the poor and avoid divisive and negative politics (of religion and caste so prevalent in India). I am no political analyst but it sounded like he had a solid strategy in going after big prized state like UP ( just like Obama targeted big states like Texas , Ohio and Florida – California was already democratic leaning so wasn’t that tough winning it over).

I wonder how Rahul Gandhi engineered his strategies. Obama had a solid team of political strategist like David Alexrod and Bill Burton and a strong support from liberal leaning new media outlets like huffingtonpost.com, moveon.org and the traditional media also had somewhat favorable bias for him (other than Fox news of course!). I did not see any such supporting factor in favor of the younger scion of Gandhi family. Web 2.0 style campaigning pioneered by Obama obviously wouldn’t have worked for India either, given the low penetration of internet in rural India. This makes his achievement even more commendable.

What do I think of the overall election results. Obviously I am happy, not because Congress won or BJP lost, but because in this clear mandate for Congress we can look forward to a stable government less susceptible to black mail of coalition politics. I had started to think that for India the days of a single party majority are gone and the coalition government is the new reality where getting anything done is always a big challenge. I am glad that Indian democracy is alive and kicking , which can humble the old and complacent and bring new leaders to the forefront. It is yet to be seen how the three troika of Congress party- Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi use their new found political capital.

Rahul may be the change India was looking for or he may turn out to be a damp squib- miserably failing to live up to his larger than life image, only time can tell. For now, he has proved his skeptics wrong, including me , and I congratulate him for his outstanding victory. Today is his day in the sun…and a testimony to the power of youth! I have already started feeling good and happy to be on the right side of history..of rooting for whoever challenges the status quo..whoever makes a sincere effort for a better tomorrow..be it Obama or Rahul Gandhi.

It’s been a while I wrote a blog post! Needless to say been busier than usual…what with the 24/7 election coverage , client deadlines, finishing up reading some of the books on my wish list and so on. Talking about the elections, as you can imagine, being a long term Barack Obama supporter, I am overjoyed on his success. His victory felt so personal in many ways, and I sure felt as if I owned a piece of this campaign. I hope this election will go down in history as one of the turning points for US politics- record participation of youth, record amount of money raised, unleashing the power of web, record voter turnout, record number of earlier voting, record minority and ethnic participation..the list goes on. I know the pundits will be analyzing this for years to come as to why he won, but for most part I think he won because of his superior organizational capabilities, his disciplined campaign, his inclusive nature of campaign, his consistent strategy based on “change we can believe in” and his steadiness in the face of highs and the lows of the campaign. With every challenge, whether thrown at him by Hillary Clinton or John McCain or Sarah Palin, he emerged out even stronger , not by hitting back, but by appealing to the sense of higher purpose within all of us. I also noticed he never grew complacent although he was leading in the polls all along. He kept appealing to the supporters, work hard as if everything depends on the last few days, he warned them sarcastically not to underestimate Democrats ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory ( an obvious reference to failed Presidential bid of Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004). One can learn a lot from this campaign which ran like a well oiled machine. The time tested formula of discipline, strategy, fighting complacency, even temperament and relentless efforts once again paid the dividend. Mr Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th President of United States in January 2009, and I look forward to seeing him in the Office! I hope he keeps the humility and humbleness he demonstrated all along the campaign and puts the country first and delivers the changes he promised so vociferously!!! Mr Obama you are under watch by a nation eager for change!!!

>
It’s been a while I wrote a blog post! Needless to say been busier than usual…what with the 24/7 election coverage , client deadlines, finishing up reading some of the books on my wish list and so on. Talking about the elections, as you can imagine, being a long term Barack Obama supporter, I am overjoyed on his success. His victory felt so personal in many ways, and I sure felt as if I owned a piece of this campaign. I hope this election will go down in history as one of the turning points for US politics- record participation of youth, record amount of money raised, unleashing the power of web, record voter turnout, record number of earlier voting, record minority and ethnic participation..the list goes on. I know the pundits will be analyzing this for years to come as to why he won, but for most part I think he won because of his superior organizational capabilities, his disciplined campaign, his inclusive nature of campaign, his consistent strategy based on “change we can believe in” and his steadiness in the face of highs and the lows of the campaign. With every challenge, whether thrown at him by Hillary Clinton or John McCain or Sarah Palin, he emerged out even stronger , not by hitting back, but by appealing to the sense of higher purpose within all of us. I also noticed he never grew complacent although he was leading in the polls all along. He kept appealing to the supporters, work hard as if everything depends on the last few days, he warned them sarcastically not to underestimate Democrats ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory ( an obvious reference to failed Presidential bid of Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004). One can learn a lot from this campaign which ran like a well oiled machine. The time tested formula of discipline, strategy, fighting complacency, even temperament and relentless efforts once again paid the dividend. Mr Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th President of United States in January 2009, and I look forward to seeing him in the Office! I hope he keeps the humility and humbleness he demonstrated all along the campaign and puts the country first and delivers the changes he promised so vociferously!!! Mr Obama you are under watch by a nation eager for change!!!

But then asks why should it matter. It shouldn’t. Good for Campbell Brown.

read more | digg story

Nice video by Campbell Brown and thanks to huffingtonpost.com for spreading the message! This is a free country and the religion of the candidate should not matter. Need to learn something in this regard from India. The current Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh is a Sikh and Sikhs are a minority in India. Same deal, the previous President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was a muslim, did it make him any less qualified for the highest office of the land. Of course not, we all love Dr Manmohan Singh and Dr APJ Kalam! Personally, I am a big fan of Dr Kalam, always thought of him being form my community ( he is a scientist, I am an engineer), doesn’t matter he is a Muslim and I am not!! I Like Barack Obama, doesn’t matter if he was an Arab or Christian or some other religion, he would still be an outstanding candidate!!

>
But then asks why should it matter. It shouldn’t. Good for Campbell Brown.

read more | digg story

Nice video by Campbell Brown and thanks to huffingtonpost.com for spreading the message! This is a free country and the religion of the candidate should not matter. Need to learn something in this regard from India. The current Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh is a Sikh and Sikhs are a minority in India. Same deal, the previous President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was a muslim, did it make him any less qualified for the highest office of the land. Of course not, we all love Dr Manmohan Singh and Dr APJ Kalam! Personally, I am a big fan of Dr Kalam, always thought of him being form my community ( he is a scientist, I am an engineer), doesn’t matter he is a Muslim and I am not!! I Like Barack Obama, doesn’t matter if he was an Arab or Christian or some other religion, he would still be an outstanding candidate!!

I watched the first Presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain tonight. Before the debate begin, Paul Begala , one of the political analyst on CNN had the following three points for the two candidates:

John McCain 1) Make sure you do not look too stale, caught in contemplating old man type looks 2) Do not be trigger happy 3) Do not show short temper.

Barack Obama 1) At times he can be satirical, avoid this as it can backfire 2) Do not be gun shy 3) do not get into a professor type preaching.
Apparently these personality traits are not fit for a President, points noted! What is true for a Presidential personality traits are true to a large extent for any one who has leadership and executive responsibilities!

The analysts recommended both of them to show some humor. In particular, one of the analyst was saying (Gloria Borger), given trial lawyer background of Barack, he goes after nuances and some time could be labeled elitist, not connecting well enough with the middle class. Interesting analysis, how your professional qualification and past career experience shapes you for your future endeavors. John McCain, she said, has been more of a street fighter, so he can connect better with the public, with humor, where Barack may sound elitist( remember his “small town Americans are bitter” comments ..probably taken out of context for political gains).
BTW, I like Paul Begala as an analyst, although he is a democratic supporter, and his opinions are likely biased in favor of democrats, he seems very convincing in what he speaks. If you are a democratic supporter too, you kind of cling on to every word that he says! I automatically find myself nodding in agreement

One other analyst I like from CNN team is Jeffrey Tooban He clearly has the mind of an analyst, quick to scope out the issue, draw conclusions, and provide his legal inputs( he is a legal analyst). And of course I like David Gergen and his analysis, he seems so sincere and sometime messenger of the bad news when you are rooting for a candidate ( in my case it would be Barack Obama) and this guy says your candidate came short

Anyway, I enjoyed watching the debate. I thought both these guys had done their homework. The foreign policy debate was good and frankly informative too. Being in North America, we are so much insulated form the larger world that some time you fail to realize what are the most vexatious issues out there, I can bet a lot of Americans have no idea what is the bone of contention between Georgia and Russia, why are they fighting? It seems so far away, so distant, so remote, not affecting our day to day life that frankly many Americans fail to comprehend the seriousness of the situation. In a way listening to these guys brought me up to date on many foreign policy issues including North Korea and Iran. Time well spent! I thought McCain, given his vast experience in the area, did pretty well, although he did seemed to be going back to the past quite a lot which may backfire with the voting public, given the “change” wave that is in the air. McCain seemed to be harping on the same point again and again, that the surge ( in Iraq) worked and he was behind it. To me it seemed like an overkill and you may actually shoot yourself in the foot- so you were right about the surge..big deal..but what about the basic idea of invading Iraq in the first place? I think Barack rebutted this well by saying straight on his face- John you were wrong- wrong to have voted for Iraq war, wrong to say that Americans will be greeted as liberators, wrong to say that the war will end swiftly.. that I thought was a good offensive from Barack. The larger voting public will take whose side on this Iraq debate, no body knows, I don’t think there was a clear winner.

The first part of the debate was about the financial crises currently gripping America. I was not impressed by either candidate on its response, I don’t think any of these candidates have a full grasp of what we are getting into. The bailout is still so new and came so fast, I think it is going to take some time before opinions crystallizes and we hear any concrete proposals from any of these candidates. This CNN article goes into some of the specifics in terms of where the candidates stood on various issues.

Who won the debate overall, opinion is divided. Here is a favorable article from Time magazine giving A- to Barack and B- to McCain. Here’s another from a Newsweek blogger that declares McCain a winner and here’s yet another which nicely summarizes the titanic battle. All these articles had one thing in common, McCain had this air of condescension and at times even outright disrespectful of his opponent, saying he doesn’t know, or he doesn’t understand, this may also backfire and turn off some of the voters.

Whether this debate will go down the history books or not, or just forgotten in the fast evolving political landscape, hard to tell, but was an important cog in the wheel of this political process. Worth watching! Looking forward to the debate of the Vice presidential candidates- Joe Biden and Sarah Palin( being hosted at Washington University, St. Louis). That would be interesting too..given Joe’s track record of a no – nonsense debater and vast experience (including foreign policy experience). Wondering if he would cut some slack to a much younger women opponent? Guess will have to wait till next Thursday, October , 2nd, to find out!

>
I watched the first Presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain tonight. Before the debate begin, Paul Begala , one of the political analyst on CNN had the following three points for the two candidates:

John McCain 1) Make sure you do not look too stale, caught in contemplating old man type looks 2) Do not be trigger happy 3) Do not show short temper.

Barack Obama 1) At times he can be satirical, avoid this as it can backfire 2) Do not be gun shy 3) do not get into a professor type preaching.
Apparently these personality traits are not fit for a President, points noted! What is true for a Presidential personality traits are true to a large extent for any one who has leadership and executive responsibilities!

The analysts recommended both of them to show some humor. In particular, one of the analyst was saying (Gloria Borger), given trial lawyer background of Barack, he goes after nuances and some time could be labeled elitist, not connecting well enough with the middle class. Interesting analysis, how your professional qualification and past career experience shapes you for your future endeavors. John McCain, she said, has been more of a street fighter, so he can connect better with the public, with humor, where Barack may sound elitist( remember his “small town Americans are bitter” comments ..probably taken out of context for political gains).
BTW, I like Paul Begala as an analyst, although he is a democratic supporter, and his opinions are likely biased in favor of democrats, he seems very convincing in what he speaks. If you are a democratic supporter too, you kind of cling on to every word that he says! I automatically find myself nodding in agreement

One other analyst I like from CNN team is Jeffrey Tooban He clearly has the mind of an analyst, quick to scope out the issue, draw conclusions, and provide his legal inputs( he is a legal analyst). And of course I like David Gergen and his analysis, he seems so sincere and sometime messenger of the bad news when you are rooting for a candidate ( in my case it would be Barack Obama) and this guy says your candidate came short

Anyway, I enjoyed watching the debate. I thought both these guys had done their homework. The foreign policy debate was good and frankly informative too. Being in North America, we are so much insulated form the larger world that some time you fail to realize what are the most vexatious issues out there, I can bet a lot of Americans have no idea what is the bone of contention between Georgia and Russia, why are they fighting? It seems so far away, so distant, so remote, not affecting our day to day life that frankly many Americans fail to comprehend the seriousness of the situation. In a way listening to these guys brought me up to date on many foreign policy issues including North Korea and Iran. Time well spent! I thought McCain, given his vast experience in the area, did pretty well, although he did seemed to be going back to the past quite a lot which may backfire with the voting public, given the “change” wave that is in the air. McCain seemed to be harping on the same point again and again, that the surge ( in Iraq) worked and he was behind it. To me it seemed like an overkill and you may actually shoot yourself in the foot- so you were right about the surge..big deal..but what about the basic idea of invading Iraq in the first place? I think Barack rebutted this well by saying straight on his face- John you were wrong- wrong to have voted for Iraq war, wrong to say that Americans will be greeted as liberators, wrong to say that the war will end swiftly.. that I thought was a good offensive from Barack. The larger voting public will take whose side on this Iraq debate, no body knows, I don’t think there was a clear winner.

The first part of the debate was about the financial crises currently gripping America. I was not impressed by either candidate on its response, I don’t think any of these candidates have a full grasp of what we are getting into. The bailout is still so new and came so fast, I think it is going to take some time before opinions crystallizes and we hear any concrete proposals from any of these candidates. This CNN article goes into some of the specifics in terms of where the candidates stood on various issues.

Who won the debate overall, opinion is divided. Here is a favorable article from Time magazine giving A- to Barack and B- to McCain. Here’s another from a Newsweek blogger that declares McCain a winner and here’s yet another which nicely summarizes the titanic battle. All these articles had one thing in common, McCain had this air of condescension and at times even outright disrespectful of his opponent, saying he doesn’t know, or he doesn’t understand, this may also backfire and turn off some of the voters.

Whether this debate will go down the history books or not, or just forgotten in the fast evolving political landscape, hard to tell, but was an important cog in the wheel of this political process. Worth watching! Looking forward to the debate of the Vice presidential candidates- Joe Biden and Sarah Palin( being hosted at Washington University, St. Louis). That would be interesting too..given Joe’s track record of a no – nonsense debater and vast experience (including foreign policy experience). Wondering if he would cut some slack to a much younger women opponent? Guess will have to wait till next Thursday, October , 2nd, to find out!