World Leaders Blog

Ok, we’ve gotten over the primaries, both conventions and we have the candidates.
What an election! Whoever wins will make election history in the US. We’ll either have an afro-american as president or a woman as vicepresident. Either way it will be an important first in american society. Just a few years back this would have been hard to believe.

Of course, there are differences in the selection  of these two groundbreaking choices ( previously in the case of a woman candidate, the democrats had proposed Gerladine Ferraro as VP to W. Mondale in 1984 ) : Obama was chosen through the primary system, while Palin was chosen directly by Senator McCain, not by popular vote. Still, it’s a measure of american society that the two major parties have each chosen an afro-american and a woman as candidates.

Now, whats the electoral situation to date? As usual as in previous elections, the country is about evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. At least in the popular vote. Just about every poll shows a statistical parity. But the US electoral system is not about the popular vote. A candidate can win more votes and yet lose the election as elections are defined by electoral votes, winner take all in each state.
As of today, the Democrats with Obama are ahead in electoral votes but that’s just for now.
CNN for example has Obama with 243 electoral vote (271 to win) between safe and leaning states, and McCain with 189.
RealClear Politics has Obama 217, McCain 174 and 147 undecided.
McCain’s intention of vote has risen after the convention and especially with the selection of governor Palin as running mate. Most polls to date show he’s catched up to and even passed Obama in the popular vote.
So, with less than two months to the election the race is definitely going to heat up, both sides are going to go on the offensive and negative politics are going to be the norm.

Truth to tell it’s going to be a terrific election!

The phrase “white mans burden” referred to the burden of taking “care” of Africans in the british colonies in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Idi Amin Dada was a  dictator who took power in Uganda. He was president from 1971 to 1979. He was a cruel and ruthless tyrant, who nevertheless had a perverse sense of humour. Having taken over most English businesses in Uganda he gave himself the CBE medal ( Conqueror of the British Empire).

In 1975 at a meeting of the Organization of African Unity, Idi Amin (wheighing 300 pounds) arrived carried in a chair by four Englishmen of the business community, with another white man carrying a parasol to shade him. Idi Amin then said that “this was the true white man’s burden”.

Mexican president Felipe Calderón fell off his bike while exercising, on saturday august 30, fracturing his shoulder plus sundry bruises. It seems he fell off when he hit a wet spot on the ground inside the presidential compound. He was taken to the hospital for treatment, and will need a couple of months physical therapy for the shoulder.
Calderón, who is 46,  took office in 2006 in a controversial election, with accusations of fraud .
No further details are available as yet on how he just fell off  the bike…..