Monday November 3, 2008, 5:30 pm
As one curtain comes down on two years of intense and at times bitter campaigning, another will go up on a new era in US politics as millions of Americans will go to the polls on Tuesday to elect their 44th President. They will make history regardless of whom they elect. A victory for Democratic nominee Barack Obama will make him America’s first black President, while a triumph for Republican nominee John McCain will make him the oldest.

Polls across the country show Obama leading McCain by anywhere from single to double digits. The latest CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national survey shows McCain trailing by seven points, while a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll has Obama widening his lead slightly.

Under the Electoral College system, states get votes based on their population. A candidate needs to win 270 of the 538 votes to win the presidency.

The six closest races will be in the states of Florida,Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada and Ohio.McCain holds the lead in Indiana and North Carolina, but Obama is ahead in the others, the latest polls from Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby suggest. Despite these numbers, McCain oozed optimism, telling supporters at a rally in Florida on Sunday night: “They may not know it, but the Mac is back! And we’re going to win this election.” In Pennsylvania, he told supporters: “We are going to win in Pennsylvania, we are going to win this election.I sense it and I know it. We are going to win here and we are going to bring real change to Washington.”

Obama, while ahead, warned his supporters not to be overconfident and urged them to vote.Officials expect a record turnout this year and the long lines at polling booths for early voting over the past few days bolster that prediction. Traditionally, large turnouts have helped the Democrats. “Don’t believe for a second this election is over. Don’t think for a minute that power will concede without a fight.We have to work like our future depends on it in these last two days, because it does,” he said in Columbus, Ohio.

The Democrat’s path to the White House could be blocked by the so-called Bradley effect, which gets its name from former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley who lost his bid for the governorship of California because white voters who initially said they would vote for him could not bring themselves to support a black man.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Obama said voters could choose “the promise of change over the power of the status quo” on Tuesday. “So, tomorrow, I ask you to write our nation’s next great chapter. I ask you to believe — not just in my ability to bring about change, but in yours. ... If you give me your vote, we won’t just win this election — together, we will change this country and change the world,” he wrote.

McCain faces an uphill battle both against a candidate who has promised change and the anti-incumbency factor sweeping a country battling two unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and closer to home struggling with an imploding economy. With his approval rating at its lowest, President George W. Bush, a Republican, has been conspicuous by his absence from McCain’s campaign trail.

Neither Obama nor McCain is leaving anything to chance.On Monday, both launched hectic campaigning as they criss- crossed the country in an effort to turn out their base. McCain was scheduled to campaign in seven states, including his home state of Florida, where he is tied in a close race with Obama, to Florida, a state that cost Al Gore the election in 2000.

Obama is determined to win back the state and last week campaigned there with former President Bill Clinton.

Monday November 3, 2008, 5:39 pm
Virginia (USA), November 3
With less than 48 hours to go before American voters decide on who their 44th President will be, the Indian-American community appears to have already decided that the US is ready to have its first Afro-American head of state.

In their view, Illinois senator Barack Obama is on all counts, a transformational candidate, a man who has the potential to lead the country and a candidate who will bring fresh energy to the White House and to the administration in Washington.

“To his advantage, Obama is from all accounts, a transformational candidate who has been able to go beyond race, who is very thoughtful, very contemplative and in that sense, he looks more presidential and ultimately people want a leader who doesn't necessarily look like them or so on, but someone who can lead and he seems to have that,” Jaikishen Desai, a senior economist at the World Bank, said.

When asked to comment on the issue of outsourcing, Desai said the Democratic camp seemed to be in favor of greater checks and curbs than the Republican camp.

Some Indian-Americans like Sumathi Subramanium, a healthcare professional, said the Indian-American community was looking for change in the US, and therefore, it should come as no surprise that they were rooting for Obama as opposed to Republican candidate John McCain.

“I think he (Obama) represents fresh energy, I think, you know, it's Indian-Americans who are also looking for change in the country as opposed to people who have sort of seen George Bush over the last eight years and John McCain probably is going to be more of the same for them,” Subramanium said.

The comments from the Indian-Americans came as both camps (Obama and McCain) are positioning themselves for a long night on Tuesday. Both expect the closing stages of the race to be tight, as there is a potential for fraudulent voter registration.

The latest Investor’s Business Daily-TechnoMetrica poll out on Sunday showed the race with just a 2-point spread, with Obama at 46.7 per cent, McCain with 44.6 per cent and 8.7 per cent of the 844 likely voters still undecided. — ANI

He has taste for Indian food

Chicago, November 3
Barack Obama, who may become the next US president after Tuesday’s election, learnt tales of the Mahabharata from his mother, says a former aide.

New Delhi-born Raja Krishnamoorthi, who was the policy director in Obama's campaign for the US senate, said Obama had a soft corner for the Indian-American community.

“He likes Indian food a great deal. I remember he came over once to my parents’ house for dinner and ate the Indian food with gusto.” With an Obama presidency, “I would not be surprised if dal makes its debut on the White House menu,” Krishnamoorthi said. — IANS


Kenya prays for ‘favourite son’

Nairobi: People in Kenya, the heartland of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's family, prayed for his victory. At the famous Kisumu's Baptist church, dozens of Christian faithful sang and prayed for Obama, who has become the East African nation's "favourite son", who is all set to occupy the White House. Raising their hands in the air, the worshippers sang prayers into a chorus over keyboard tunes belting through a homemade woofer. — ANI


Obama’s Kashmir remark reaffirms old US stand

Washington, November 3
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is toeing the old American line saying the US should make efforts to forge better relations between India and Pakistan by resolving the Kashmir problem peacefully and amicably, said Kashmiri-American Council head Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai.

Commenting on Obama’s statement on Kashmir, Fai said the Senator, who is tipped to be the next US President, was in “full conformity” with previous statements made by US leaders and representatives.

“As early as 1962, US President John F. Kennedy requested the President of Ireland to sponsor a resolution on Kashmir in the UN Security Council (UNSC), reaffirming the resolutions of the UN Commission on India and Pakistan (UNCIP),” he said. He added that US secretary of state John Foster Dulles said on February 5, 1957, “We continue to believe that unless the parties are able to agree upon some other solution, the solution which was recommended by the UNSC should prevail, which is that there should be a plebiscite.”

Dr Fai said American representative to the UN Adlai Stevenson stated on June 15, 1962, “The best approach is to take for a point of departure the area of common ground which exists between the parties. I refer of course to the resolutions, which were accepted by both parties and which in essence provide for demilitarisation of the territory and a plebiscite, whereby the population may freely decide the future status of Jammu and Kashmir.”

More recently, President George Bush said on February 22 this year that the US supports any solution of Kashmir that was acceptable to India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri citizens, Fai said. — ANI


Top political buzzwords: Change, climate change, gasoline

New York, November 3
With "Financial meltdown" also finding a place in the list of 30. The list of terms or phrases that become loaded with emotional freight beyond the normal meaning of the word was announced by the Global Language Monitor (GLM), which has been tracking the buzzwords in this election cycle for nearly 18 months.

"Change is the topmost concern. Both candidates- Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama - are benefiting from the mantra; however Obama holds a 3:2 edge over McCain in this regard," the GLM said.

"Taken as a whole, their concerns centre upon uncontrollable, cataclysmic events such as the global financial meltdown and climate change, while raising taxes or cutting taxes are lesser (though still important) concerns," said Paul J. J. Payack, president and chief word analyst of GLM.

The ranking is determined by GLM's PQI Index, a proprietary algorithm that scours the global print and electronic media, the Internet, and blogosphere for 'hot' political buzzwords and then ranks them according to year-over-year change, acceleration and directional momentum. GLM had used this methodology in the 2004 elections. — PTI

Monday November 3, 2008, 6:09 pm
I will be voting here in North Carolina tomorrow and can't wait until it's all over. Noted with thanks Naresh.

Monday November 3, 2008, 7:57 pm
I have already voted and eagerly await a landslide victory but only if there are not too many irregularities in the counting as there have been in the last two elections for president. If it is close, it could be a week or two before we know whether or not the republicans have stolen another one.

Tuesday November 4, 2008, 11:35 am
Already voted. I eagerly await Americans' verdict.

Tuesday November 4, 2008, 3:51 pm
Excellent post Naresh! warm regards to everyone

Tuesday November 4, 2008, 4:39 pm
Voters waited patiently outside St.Mary’s Court polling station in Northwest Washington, D.C., in a line that snaked around the block soon after polls opened at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

In what may perhaps be a sign of the change coming to America, a tiny New Hampshire town voted 15-6 for Obama, the first time it has voted for a Democrat since 1968. The town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, has a 60-year tradition of being first in the nation to vote and polls, which opened at midnight had a 100% turnout. Similar turnout was expected across the country.

Young and old, white and black and every shade in between lined up, some armed with books and cups of steaming coffee to cope with the hours-long wait and crisp November air.

It was a scene that played out across America as a nation that barely four decades ago sent blacks to the back of the bus stood poised to send one to the White House.

More than 29 million voters have already cast their ballots in the days before Election Day and a poll of how they voted showed a majority supporting Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama over his Republican rival John McCain.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, accompanied by their two daughters, voted at a polling station in Chicago at around 8:35 a.m. Obama’s running mate Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill, voted soon after. Obama’s former rival Sen.

Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband former President Bill Clinton voted in Chappaqua, N.Y., around 9:30 a.m. McCain and his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will vote in their home states of Arizona and Alaska later in the day.

In Arizona, McCain promised supporters that he and Palin would “change things in Washington.” “We are closing in the polls. All we got to do is get out the vote,” he said at the end of a seven-state swing on Monday night. “I will never be able to repay you, except to say to you that I will never, ever let you down and I haven't and I won’t... Let’s go out and win this election and get our country going again.”

Speaking in the Washington suburb of Manassas, Virginia, on Monday night, Obama told supporters, “You've filled me with new hope for our future and you've reminded me about what makes America so special.” “This is our last rally,” Obama said.

“After decades of broken politics in Washington, eight years of failed policies from George Bush, and 21 months of a campaign, we are less than one day away from bringing about change in America.”

The 2008 election – which will make history by giving America either its first black president (Obama) or its oldest leader (McCain) - has already entered the record books as the most expensive. As of Monday, Obama had raised more than $454 million, compared with the $230 million raised by McCain.

Despite Obama’s strong leads in nationwide polls voter turnout is key to a Democratic victory. Various scenarios have been discussed and debated by political pundits including one in which Obama could win the popular vote but lose the electoral vote and the election – as happened to Al Gore in 2000. Under the Electoral College system, states get votes based on their population. A candidate needs to win 270 of the 538 votes to win the presidency.

A pall of gloom descended over the Obama camp on Monday when the candidate learned that his grandmother, who helped raise him as a child and of whom he has spoken fondly on the campaign trail, died in Hawaii following a battle with cancer. Madelyn Dunham, whom Obama affectionately called “Toot,” was 86.

Obama said his grandmother “has gone home. She died peacefully in her sleep, with my sister at her side. So there’s great joy as well as tears.”

“She was the cornerstone of our family,” Obama and his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng said in a statement. “She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances.”

Obama took a break from campaigning late last month to visit his white grandmother after he learned she did not have long to live. McCain and his wife, Cindy, issued a condolence statement to Obama and his family “as they remember and celebrate the life of someone who had such a profound impact in their lives.”

“This is a little of a bittersweet time for me,” Obama admitted. “We have had a remarkable campaign and – when we started 21 months ago I didn’t know how it would turn out, and no matter what happens tomorrow I’m going to feel good about how it’s turned out because all of you have created this incredible campaign.”

Tuesday November 4, 2008, 7:00 pm
I have to go to bed before I will have to wake up (still 4 hours) - now Obama has 200 (without CA +55, WA +11, Oregon +7) - so until nothing happens (UFO, end of the world etc.) - YOU won.
Best wishes Americans!!!

Tuesday November 4, 2008, 8:38 pm
What an amazing night! We have finally come full circle!!!! Noted!

Wednesday November 5, 2008, 7:15 am
Yes we can !!!!!! Yes we did !!!!!!!

Wednesday November 5, 2008, 9:12 am
"Yes we can !!!!!! Yes we did !!!!!!!"

and YES, WE WILL