PRIMARY RACE FINALLY OVER, WOW THANK GOD

But, make no mistake about the general election, it is going to be brutal.  There are people who will not vote for Obama because he is black, even the Russians preferred McCain 36 to 28, of course representing the so-called working class whites in this case of Europe.  But I believe he has demonstrated enough of an broader appeal that would help to push him to become the next POTUS.

On Tuesday night, the media declared the primary campaigning over, after Obama passed that magic number 2, 118 votes, combination of the pledged and superdelegate count, though at the same time he lost in South Dakota, where he had been expected to win.  But am I glad that this is over.  I am exhausted, and if I am exhausted I wonder how Obama and Clinton have been able to maintain this grueling schedule, he at 46 years old and she at 60 years.  I never went to any of the campaigns, but net-surfing has been my stock in trade since this campaign started.  Just like today, here I am already 12:55 and I should be working on producing next week’s paper, but I am still net-surfing between http://www.huffingtonpost.com, http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com, http://www.dailykos.com, http://www.mydd.com, http://www.politico.com, and http://www.drudge.com, and when I really want a totally one-side view, I click on http://www.jedreport.com. Some times, I even click http://www.drudge.com (drudgereport).  Though they are supposed to be liberal blogs, with the exception of http://www.politico.com, nevertheless they display a canny independence of publishing whatever is news and publish them before the msm publishes. 

I came to recognize the nuances with which each blog treats their subjects.  http://www.dailykos.com, I came to recognize as rabidly pro-Obama, http://www.mydd.com as slightly pro-Clinton but can give you non-partisan assessment of the two candidates, though its chief Todd Beeton could be said to display a pro-Clinton streak, the opposite of Moulitsas of http://www.dailykos.com.  You can literally spend the whole day reading one article or another, with the screaming headlines in Huffingtonpost and then comments from readers, to the blogposts from others at talkingpointsmemo and the comments others make. 

For my channel-surving, I used to be glued to CNN, there was a time I thought they were doing a good job, but then I discovered that xenophobic stance of Lou Dobbs, who night after night was screaming immigrant misdeeds upon immigrant misdeeds, as if without immigrants, American would be a land of peace, forgetting its violent antedent.  That’s before I discovered Keith Olbermann of Countdown on MSNBC, and was impressed by his directness in addressing the issues.  He seemed to be Obama’s greatest town-crier on the cable networks, as much as Chris Mathews was bestowed with that accolade.  Keith is the person most people are talking about what he said or did, or what he did not say or do.  Even Rupert Murdoch recently got into the act, as well as Vice President Dick Cheney, with Murdoch talking about how he fired Keith from one of his ESPN stations.  “He is crazy,” he said.  I just read yesterday how Keith’s Countdown is catching to Bill O’Reilly’s Factor, which used to have a 120% rating advantage over Countdown but now just down to 13%.

Of course, I am reading the New York Times online as well as receiving it everyday, as well as the Wall Street Journal.  Washington Post, I read online free as well.  But Wall Street Journal is still by subscription, although it had been rumored that it would become free online after the Rupert Murdoch takeover. 

Then, for news about the election from other newspapers, as well as the ones I have read, I turn to Toyin Falola’s , where the postings of articles favorable constitute over 95%.  My only beef with these postings is that they are postings of articles written by others, not our own African intellectuals or writers.  We have thousands of ph.ds in this country, and most of them belong to that listserv, yet all we do there is post articles written by others, and get antagonistic when a few in our midst post their own articles not favorable to Obama.  It reminds you of the dictators back in Africa who are intolerant of opposite views.

For all intents and purposes, our man is the nominee of the Democratic party, an historic seismic event in the history of the world, where a black man, would arguably lead the greatest superpower on earth.  After 7 1/2 years of George Bush, the world is looking to Barack Obama to repair the horrendous image of America that Bush created.  In fact, in a survey of five Europeans nations, Obama beat McCain handily.  The result is here, which found that 52% of Europeans said they would vote for Obama as against 15% for McCain.

Europeans Favor Obama Over McCain

Voters in five major European countries showed a strong preference for Barack Obama as their favourite candidate to win the United States presidential elections, according to a poll published on Friday.
In a YouGov survey commissioned by the British newspaper Daily Telegraph’s website, 52 percent of respondents in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia said they would vote for the Democratic front-runner if they could, against just 15 percent who said they would vote for Republican nominee John McCain.

The numbers were, however, different from country to country. The likely Democratic candidate held a 61-point lead in Germany, but was practically on par with his Republican counterpart in Russia, where Obama was leading by only 7 points. 70 percent of Italian respondents said they would vote for the Democrat.

Some 42 percent also said Obama was better equipped to lead the global economy out of its current set of problems, compared to 22 percent who backed McCain.

A question of reputation

Overall, just 27 percent of those questioned said they thought the United States was a “force for good” in the world, with 43 percent opting to describe it as a “force for evil”—only in Italy did more respondents choose the former than the latter.

Anti-American feelings were particularly evident in Russia, where only 16 percent said the United States was a “force for good”, with 56 percent branding it as a “force for evil”.

40 percent of German respondents saw the US in the extremely negative light, with 25 percent valuing its positive contribution in the world, and 36 percent saying they did not have a particular opinion on the question.

YouGov questioned 6,256 people over the Internet between May 23 and 29, including 2,241 in Britain, 1,005 in France, 1,001 in Russia, 1,004 in Italy and 1,005 in Germany.

In Africa itself, the euphoria of Obama’s candidacy is palpable.  While I was in Tanzania, I could see people who could barely afford to clothe themselves, but would rather invest in an Obama button, t-shirts or bumber stickers.  It was amazing, so it is with other parts of Africa.

So, it is the end of the primary season.  Senator Hillary Clinton has decided to take her time in endorsing Obama, which is her choice, whether she did it on Tuesday night rather than upstaging him and being introduced as the future president of the U.S., it doesn’t really matter now, Obama is the candidate.  She will do it on Saturday, that’s perfectly fine.

But, make no mistake about the general election, it is going to be brutal.  There are people who will not vote for Obama because he is black, even the Russians preferred McCain 36 to 28, of course representing the so-called working class whites in this case of Europe.  But I believe he has demonstrated enough of an broader appeal that would help to push him to become the next POTUS.

Until the GE, I intend to rest my eyes and my ears, maybe then I could be able to finish my next book, a sequel to Capitalist Nigger, which just zoomed back to the No.6 on the African bestseller list.

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