Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 8

Its been a while since I posted on my previous series "Dummies Guide to US Elections" (Part 6 n older) and since then lot has happened, ah not really. Thou' Mrs. Clinton is out of the race, it was getting just too confusing for everyone (Americans / International community alike). So now we down to final two - the very very old man "the-white-hair-dude" and the-man-who-is-gonna-bring-change.

This is not what caught my attention, but someone else bought back the good feeling of "drama" the US elections gives to us and am totally back on track to track. And that someone else is Paris Hilton. And this is the best campaign you will ever see and it has given an entirely new dimension to the ever-so dramatic US elections. Check it out:

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Finally, a worthwhile 3rd candidate has arrived. Vote for Paris Hilton.



Paris Hilton quotes:
"he is oldest celebrity in the world, like super old"
"i'm just hot"
"totally ready to lead"
"dancing was sin, n beer was served in a bucket"
"I'll see you at the debate bitches"
"Vice President - Rihana"
"Paint it Pink"

This was in response to this Mc Cain ad (which is btw just awful)


And I can't even comprehend this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mopkn0lPzM8

Is he gonna flip a lot more?

hopefully not, but

His Switch on Telecom Immunity (NY Times)

And Iraq

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 9

following up on Part-8, its been since I posted about hillary-obama .. and looks like its not gonna be resolved anytime soon. Here are some hilarious clips for MadTV.. enjoy .. the drama continues....

The new democratic woman of the year - Barack Obama :D and the singing .. brilliant.. don't worry about baby!


Fired Up.. folks we have hope.. hurray :) .. Oooooooprah


Barack Rapping up :D

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 8

Following up on previous post - Part 7.

Stephen giving his perspective on Barack Obama "You are no Kennedy". Brilliant Colbert!

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 7

decision-making for dummies, originally uploaded by petit hiboux.

Following up on previous post in the series, Part 6.

Great work by "Petit Hiboux" on flickr; saw this one on flickr blog recently and reminded me of US elections for dummies again.

Enjoy!!

And yeah, things are heating up between hillary n obama. Actually to me, it has sorta reached a level of annoying-ness, hence I am not following the drama that much these days. Also I have been busy with work. No more Sky news.

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 6

Following up on previous post in the series, Part 5.

A good documentary about Barack Obama, his life, his past, his journey and fight, discovery to find himself, merging inside n outside etc.



Excerpt: When he called himself "a skinny kid with a funny name" at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, his political star was already on the ... all » rise. By the time he decimated the competition in 2004 race for the Illinois Senate, he was the bona fide golden child of a Democratic party desperately in need of a winner. In many ways, the story of Barack Obama is a uniquely American tale of the 21st century, where racial lines are blurry and the most interesting chapter is just beginning.

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 5

Following up on previous post in the series, Part 4.

A lot has happened in the race to select the Presidential candidates since I last posted, where I mentioned that Obama and Hillary are pretty much neck to neck. We are not worried about the Republicans, Bush will find them a suitable candidate to lose or win or lose?

Obama has cleaned sweeped all the smaller states which held the primaries & caucus's during last week or so, Wisconsin, Washington, Maine, Nebraska n some other unknown states. I was reading about it on washington post and they had detailed review of which states matter and which don't. Lot of them which matter in terms of selection, like California, NY, NJ are won by Clinton. But there has a been a lot of new additions and first timer's, never-before voters which are playing big role for Obama campaign. Some other old runners like Michigan, Florida have been ruled out for voting, no need for going into details of that.

So, what does all this mean for Mrs Clinton, the scripts are saying that Texas and Ohio should be won by her, if she wants to remain in the race, and that we won't know until next month.

A candidate need 2,025 delegates to win the nomination. Both are still pretty much equal in terms of numbers right now and some extra "Super" delegates which can make a difference are still unsure who they might support and might be sweeped by Obama if he continues on its roll.

An interesting bit I read was that as Obama is exposed more n more to people in the race, people are liking him even more and interest in his candidacy is growing, which is def. good for him.

And yeah, another interesting bit from Fox News offcourse: one of the best lines -

Republicans are worried that if Barack Obama gets the nomination, it is like running against hope. How do you attack hope?

Its sort of bit boring right now, small states, big states sleeping, counted or not, matter or doesn't, useless pre-conditions, etc.; lets leave it here and wait for something exciting to come up.

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Update: almost forgot this, between all this drama, Obama also won a Grammy Award over the weekend for Best Spoken Word (for the audio version of his book The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream)

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 4

Following up on my previous post, here, which seems to have become sort of a series of posts about US Elections. Whats new now!

Super Tuesday (its just like Super Size Burgers, Super Size fries, Super Coca Cola, everything is supposed to be "Super" in US :D) CAME & WENT and the climax still remains in our US Elections Soap Opera.

Clinton and Obama are pretty much neck to neck. She took all the big states like California, New York etc and he took more of the small states like Delaware, Colorado (valley citizens), etc., doesn't really matter now as we don't have a winner yet. Its looks to me like in the end, both candidates will go for closed door meetings or something of that sort to decide who will run and other might run for Vice President. Warning: don't take my word for it, I have no clue of how the democratic process of selecting the candidates works. It came to my mind just now, but somehow it feels right, no, both of them together will do quite good. But as we are just outside viewers, we need more drama in the series to keep our interests alive.

And offcourse, we don't care about the Republicans. Do We?

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 3

Following up on my previous post: Part 2 of US Election for Dummies

South Carolina - everybody knows it by now that Barack Obama won the democrat primary in that state by big margins. I was watching Colbert Report last night about his views on it. South Carolina - What Could Have Been. If he would have ran in South Carolina, am sure noone, noone could have won, Obama, Clinton, whoever.
Enjoy the video, until next presidential elections ;), if he runs.


Oh and also, as I said in my last post, and compared US elections to some sort of soap opera; am not alone in saying that, last week in The Tonight Show, (watch it here on Hulu, only US Viewers), leno said the same. Its ON.

Oprah -> Pope-rah

Absolutely genius.. colbert is genius. In recent Colbert Report, he compares Barack Obama to JF Kennedy. Its amazing how he makes up Pope-rah comparison, you gotta see the video NOW. I couldn't stop laughing and have seen it like 10 times straight on. And way he ends it, brilliant, he knows it too. "Copyright Stephen Colbert"

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 2

Following up on Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 1

Tomorrow is one of the big shows for US elections, esp. for the Democrats. (Just to remind - there are only two parties - Democrats and The Republicans). South Carolina Democrats Vote tomorrow for their primaries in the state of South Carolina. The interesting angle here is, Bill Clinton, during his election days was called The Black President and he is quite popular among the community. Thou' its not his time now, its Mrs. Clinton who is in charge now, n offcourse has the backing of her popular husband and also the female voter's support supposedly. And on the other side, we have the actual / real first time (to be) black / african american president.

I don't have any information whatsoever about South Carolina itself (not important, irrelevant just like in any TV Drama, do we care where Heroes or Friends etc. happened, its just everywhere), and here also its all over news n internet, so we will believe in whatever the writers (thou' the real ones from Hollywood are on strike) wrote for us for the next episode and hence South Carolina has large number of votes from African American community and African-Americans strongly support Obama in South Carolina and then there are women voters which would again supposedly favour Clinton (i'm just assuming that seeing the last vote off), which would be critical for both candidates. Thuo' both sides are trying avoid that angle, but we all know its there and they are also trying to play it nice. Via Fox News (offcourse they put the most interesting angle out there, read it on their website only).

For the twist, or climax and the third angle, lets say John Edwards is also rising in popularity or people just can't make up their minds between Obama and Clinton and would vote for Edwards.

Isn't it fun, so get ready for an interesting episode of the US election primaries, watch it with your entire family. Its the weekend special for wholesome family entertainment.

Dummies Guide to US Elections - 1

Now you might ask why US elections and what do I have do with them whatsoever. I am not exactly sure of it either but would try to explain some parts in this post.

First - offcourse it has be to a dummies guide, a view from outside US.

More importanty, the main reason for following it or reading about it or watching it on TV is like watching or following a nicely scripted TV Drama Series like Heroes etc.. (thou' Heroes is better)

In my apt. we get Sky News (one of the few free channels we get), its a UK based news service (News Channel of the year "forever") owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which also owns the creepy Fox News Channel in US. And hence they follow the US elections as if its going on next door every 15 mintues and also shows fox news specials of it. And its almost like watching a drama series, as I said earlier.

Previous US elections, in 2004, I was living in NJ, US and it's a bit weird, I (or we) never cared to realize whats going on in elections (everyone said they are voting for democrats but what happened in between, I don't know), hated the news coverage in US of anything, it feels all so artifical. Thou' there were other reaons too, who cares!!

But now, they are almost everywhere, all over Google News, Sky News Channel, blogs, NY Times, etc. etc., and they are still almost a year away. So in some way its hard to get away from them even if you have no real interest whatsoever. Very much like watching some TV show, which you watch but its just a show, so who cares.

Following all sorts of coverage in last few weeks, facebook et al. debate, youtube CNN debates, freaky oprah with obama, clinton with barbara s, etc. etc. and finally last week, Iowa Caucus (Winners - Barack Obama & Mike Huckabee) and following it all the hype about Hillary Clinton being thrown out of the race (hopefully u saw news of that, it was hilarious), polls showing all againsit her (f*ck news polls) and all sort of crap, again well scripted. Then she cries (or almost) on TV, and boooom, New Hampshire primary (Winners - Hillary Clinton & John McCain), found her own voice.

Isn't it a great start for any drama series, pilot episode.

If I get something wrong, unclear, totally out of context, please feel free to leave a comment, keep in mind thou' its only a dummeies guide.

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Update (Daily Show is back on air) (episode 9 Jan 08)
* Ice Queen "HIllary" is melting
* they have tech gimmicks also
* and all those movie reviews while reviewing politics .. unbeatable

Updated Again - Jan. 15 (oh apple keynote .. get ready to spend some more money :D)