In all, the night was somewhat less charged than the previous; the night that featured Governor Sarah Palin saw speeches from Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and the Alaskan Governor herself. Last night featured a handful of moderately important senators and governors, but the speech by Cindy McCain who would be first lady sucked all of the oxygen out of the room. It nearly put me to sleep. Mrs. McCain clutched the microphone tightly with both hands and read her speech awkwardly from teleprompters telling the audience about her warm feelings about her husband. McCain ran in 2000 and had an extended run, obviously in this primary season, yet Cindy McCain is still not ready for prime time.

John McCain’s speech was direct and outlined his case for President. His record of military service and sacrifice for country is incomparable, he says, to that of the “community organizer” from Chicago.

For some time, I was confused by the McCain campaign’s lack of ability, or want, to match Barack Obama’s brilliant and attention-gathering campaign. Why was McCain not responding directly with massive rallies, trans-Atlantic trips, and buzz-generating speeches? Was it a factor of the campaign’s failure to reach voters? Perhaps. But, I think that the McCain campaign may have had a strategy of letting Obama’s star burn bright while they would sustain and build their campaign reliably and with a moderate tone. Why would they do this? I think that John McCain’s campaign did this purposefully to allow the election to become a referendum on Obama. If Obama got more attention, the question would be “is this the change we’re looking for and do we take a chance on him”. The difference in experience between Obama and McCain is striking and therefore when the ballot question has been defined, McCain is able to step in to answer the specific question they intended to shape on Barack Obama.

In my opinion, the most effective lines from McCain’s speech were:

“I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.

“I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.”

The speech ended using a method that caused a crescendo of applause for the Senator:

“I’m going to fight for my cause every day as your President. I’m going to fight to make sure every American has every reason to thank God, as I thank Him: that I’m an American, a proud citizen of the greatest country on earth, and with hard work, strong faith and a little courage, great things are always within our reach.”

crowd rises to their feet and applauds.

“Fight with me.”

louder

“Fight with me.”

almost literally says “louder”

“Fight for what’s right for our country.”

“Fight” is an action word that evokes a call to action and a sense that McCain and the crowd are doing this together.

“Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.”

Each “fight for” line enunciates values important to Republicans and to those who can put McCain over the top in November and elect him President in November.

“Fight for our children’s future.”

“Fight for justice and opportunity for all.”

“Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.”

“Stand up for each other; for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America”

Fight, now stand up. Literally stand up. Cheering louder.

“Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight.”

Elections are about engagement for participating in making a change that one can believe in. Each “stand up” emphasized with pause to get the crowd to get even louder and build excitement.

“Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.”

Message of unity and common purpose in order to act together to elect McCain.

“Thank you, and God Bless you.”

Here are some of my photos from McCain’s speech last night:

Being a non-partisan international observer of the process was still quite exciting. Americans do these events and speeches like nobody else. Barack Obama addressed a stadium of 80,000 in Denver and both racked in millions of viewers. McCain, however, had a slight edge in TV viewership.

5:58pm — Call to order
8:14pm — Mitt Romney
8:34pm — Mike Huckabee
9:04pm — Rudy Giuliani
9:20pm — Gov. Linda Lingle
9:37pm — Gov. Sarah Palin

According to Canadian Darryl Wolk McCain should pick the current Secretary of State Rice. He argues:

McCain is a maverick and often defies his own party, but after gaining some ground at the recent faith discussions, picking (Tom) Ridge or (Joe) Lieberman could be very risky. I would say odds are increasing for Huckabee or a candidate like Gingrich who are more likely to be accepted by the base. I still strongly think McCain's best option is Ms. Rice.

In this term's hotly contested elections, Wolk explains:

McCain could be in a strong position to name a quality VP choice and go into the Republican convention with strong momentum leading into what will be the crunch time of this campaign. Despite the unpopularity of the Republican Party, McCain has hung in there in terms of polls against “the biggest celebrity in the world”. The fact that he is close to the margin of error and still very competitive in swing states means that this presidential race is still too close to call.

Wolk also lists all the likely candidates, who include Tim Pawlenty, Charlie Crist, Sarah Palin, Joe Lieberman, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul and Tom Ridge, to name a few.

Weighing Rice's cons and pros, the blogger says:

Pro - I would argue the strongest chance for a female President in the near future. Seen as a moderate within the Bush administration. Great credentials and experience in foreign affairs. Young and African American. Probably the highest profile pick available.
Con - Tarnished by George W. Bush and his record. Seen as a failure by some as Secretary of State.

A Political Glimpse from Ireland announces that McCain has already selected Governor Romney as his running mate. The blogger notes:

I personally don’t think this is a bad choice considering Senator Obama is favored in most polls for handling the economy better than Senator McCain. A few frequent commentors on this blog have argued whether VP’s actually make the difference in an election however I think it comes down to perception… if people believe a VP Romney will be right there by McCain side’s advocating economic policies to fix the current economic recession then maybe McCain is the right person to vote for?

The good news for Senator McCain today is that his most likely choice is former Governor Romney according to Mark Halperin at Time:

2 Republican sources say McCain has apparently settled on Romney as his pick, but no offer has been made.

I personally don’t think this is a bad choice considering Senator Obama is favored in most polls for handling the economy better than Senator McCain. A few frequent commentors on this blog have argued whether VP’s actually make the difference in an election however I think it comes down to perception… if people believe a VP Romney will be right there by McCain side’s advocating economic policies to fix the current economic recession then maybe McCain is the right person to vote for? I honestly hope it is not governor Romney because I actually like the  guy and I think a fair number of independents would like him as well especially considering his success in my home state of Massachusetts. He turned the economy around, and that is one fact we democrats cannot argue.

I am going to keep my fingers crossed that former Governor Romney is not the guy because a Biden vs. Romney debate would not end well for Biden. Anyway, onto happier news, the DNC is next week and if you are not in America at the moment and wondering when to switch on the TV, you can view the DNC schedule here. The DNC is going to be one big event considering the lineup of speakers, I think it is going to be the biggest political event this year even more so than the RNC. Let’s face it, is there anyone that is going to top Senator Obama’s acceptance speech at the RNC? I don’t think so.

Senator McCain’s camp concurs releasing a new memo:

Obama’s stadium address on Thursday - the 45th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech - will result in effusive and overwhelming press coverage. On Thursday, Obama will give a great speech, as has been his trademark. The press will sing his praises and remark on his historic address and Obama’s place in history. For example, The Associated Press today published an article comparing the historic nature of the addresses - a week before Obama’s speech. This coverage will be impenetrable and will undoubtedly impact the polls.

We believe Obama will see a significant bump, and believe it is reasonable to expect nearly a 15-point bounce out of a convention in this political environment.

This is good news going into this weekend for those Democrats who have been worrying about the narrowing polls, next week is going to be one hell of a week so make sure you get plenty of rest this weekend. Don’t forget the Obama VP announcement is tomorrow!

Among such sites is Who the World Wants, which aims polls non-Americans, giving them the choice between selecting Republican Party candidate John McCain or Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama.

“This website is intended to finding out who the world outside the United States of America wants as a President for your country. Please, if you are a United States Citizen, DO NOT VOTE (you get to vote for real),” says the announcement on the site.

So far, the results show Obama as a global favourite, with 1,032 votes in his favour, against McCain's 685 global fans.

Another site sharing a similar idea is Who Would the World Elect? On this site, Republican Ron Paul is the forerunner, with close to 67,000 votes from around the world. Obama is a far second with 21,000 votes while former Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton is a third, with around 6,800 votes. The site, which has so far seen 118,332 votes cast, also has a listing of where the votes came from, and for whom.

From Afghanistan, for instance, eight people have had their say as follows:

3 votes for Ron Paul
3 votes for Hillary Clinton
2 votes for Barack Obama

Australia too favours Ron Paul, with 1,267 votes for him. The other results are as follows:

710 votes for Barack Obama
176 votes for Hillary Clinton
97 votes for Dennis Kucinich
72 votes for Mike Gravel
28 votes for John Edwards
27 votes for Rudy Giuliani
13 votes for John McCain
11 votes for Fred Thompson
8 votes for Mitt Romney
5 votes for Chris Dodd
4 votes for Joe Biden
4 votes for Mike Huckabee
4 votes for Bill Richardson
3 votes for Sam Brownback
3 votes for Tom Tancredo
2 votes for Duncan Hunter
2 votes for Ralph Nader

For a full listing of how people in other countries have voted, click here.

What if we all voted? is yet another site, operating on the same principle. The site describes itself as:

a simple poll* of who the world would vote for in the upcoming US presidential election… if they could.

Obama leads the polls on this site and the full results can be found here.

Obama only made one campaign stop in West Virginia, instead concentrating on November’s general election against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. However, the size of Clinton’s victory led some analysts to believe that the her campaign for the Democratic nomination is far from finished. “This race isn't over yet. Neither of us has the total delegates it takes to win,” Clinton told supporters. “I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard.”

MSNBC affirms that Obama has 1,880 delegates while Clinton's has earned 1,718, with six more delegates to be awarded in West Virginia. With five state primaries remaining before June 3, Obama needs 145 delegates to reach the 2,025 line needed to clinch the nomination. Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Thus, both candidates must rely on the support of more than 800 Superdelegates – party insiders and elected officials – to secure the Democratic nomination. It is believed Obama has a lead in Superdelegates.

It was just one week ago that it seemed Obama’s nomination was all but a foregone conclusion. After West Virginia, however, bloggers, like most others, are torn on what Clinton’s victory means to the future of the Democratic nomination. According to the Gay Patriot, “the internet home for the American gay conservative,” Clinton’s victory should mean a lot for Democrats: Just because political pundits claim an Obama candidacy doesn’t mean it to be true. On the other hand, Mash from Bangladesh but living in the U.S., points out in Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying that voter turnout in West Virginia was much lower than expected, thus lessening the blow of Clinton’s victory. The EU-Post predicts Clinton’s large victory should be a worrying sign for Obama, who still cannot attract blue-collar voters and the support of lower-income Americans.

Andrew Malcolm, blogging at the Los Angeles Times, reminds us that the Republican race is still ongoing, even though McCain is assured the nomination. The big loser in West Virginia was Ron Paul, McCain’s last remaining Republican challenger, who garnered only five percent of the vote. He was beaten by Mike Huckabee, who pulled out of the race weeks ago. Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, two well-funded Republicans no longer campaigning for President, nearly beat Paul.

Looking over national polling data, Jeff Weintraub, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Haifa in Israel, points out that Clinton is more popular among Jewish voters than Obama; however, the Illinois Senator outpolls Republican John McCain.

For some bloggers, calls continue for Clinton to drop out of the race in show of unity. In Contextual Musings, David, a Arab-American academic with “Eurocentric yet Asian inspired tendencies,” compares Clinton’s victory speech to Bush’s attempt after the 2000 presidential election to claim a mandate when he lost the popular and the Supreme Court handed him a victory. In Politics Across the Pond, Crain calls on Clinton fans to united behind Obama and to focus on John McCain and the November election.

The View from the Other Side, a South African living in Silicon Valley, California, takes conservative Christians to task for ignoring the issues and their “despicable” and “unchristian” attacks on Obama.

Looking forward, Joe Joseph from The Times in London, declares that if Obama is beaten by McCain this fall, Hillary should be a frontrunner for 2012, when she’ll be 64. Jonathan Steele in Comment is Free in the Guardian argues that Obama’s ideas about the Middle East are simply “business as usual” to really provide the revolution in U.S. foreign policy he’s promised. The Angry African, who’s been through a real electoral revolution in South Africa, reminds doom saying Americans that come November it won’t be the end of the world, no matter who wins the U.S. Presidency.

The upcoming elections in the USA are about whom the American citizens would vote in as their president, not what the rest of the world would wish for America. As you may have noticed, I have followed with a certain interest the proceedings during the campaign. I have attended two political meetings in town, discussed the merits of each candidates with my fellow American co-workers and even created this group (mostly for fun). My co-workers know I cannot vote so they are often wondering why I would even care.

I am not alone here. The elections in the US are not meant for either the Brits , the Egyptians, the French, the Nigerians nor the Swedes ( and many others, about 25 groups by my count) but they all chimed in. You can find more reactions from all over the world at voiceswithoutvotes and submit your thought as well.

The important point here is that all these people are not just voicing their opinions about candidate lambda for the sake of making noise. We all know too well that this does not help by any stretch of the imagination (and in the case of the support from France, one may argue that it has the opposite effect, but more on that later).
It is not that all those folks suddenly suffer from a “Miss Universe pageant syndrome” and believe that World Peace is now within reach.

The point of all this support is that we also have our own fear to express.

It's the same fear that Americans have felt after 9/11. The fear born from the Bombings in Bali, Mumbai, London and Madrid. The fear that the world is being polarized and hold hostage by extremists and mass murderers . The fear that our families living in major metropolitan areas might also be someday swept away but some vicious acts. Terrorism after all, also killed thousands in Nairobi and was potentially active in Madagascar.

We wish for a candidate that would be the most effective in reducing terrorism on global scale.

The most agreed upon reason for 9/11 is that there was a major failure of the US intelligence system. An efficient network needs nations with common goals to come together and share data.
Hillary Clinton said a short time after 9/11, ” You are either with America in our time of need or you are not”.
Well, the rest of the world was with America. However, the way the war on terror was managed so single-handedly, we were not sure whether America really wanted the rest of the world to “be with” them in the first place.

Anti-French sentiment was at an all-time high when French diplomats dare to express reserve about the wisdom of attacking Iraq. After that decision, politicians did not think that they could win an election without weighing in on the darned French.
It was either R. Limbaugh with his “John Kelly is French-looking and has French relatives …” or Mitt Romney saying: ” Unless America changes course, we will become the France of the 21st century”. Even the democrats at ourfuture.org came up with a mocking video saying ” Merci McCain”.

The candidate that is willing to rebuild those burned bridges with many nations will be the most effective in preventing future terrorist acts. Which president would US allies be more willing to share information on budding extremist activities with the bully who says: “with me or against me” or the one willing to listen to all points of view before making an informed decision ? Which method has the most chance to be effective and potentially avoid a catastrophic decision ?

Jeremy Piven, Ari from the HBO show “Entourage”, explained yesterday to Purdue students and staff why he was traveling across the state of Indiana for the Obama campaign. Here is one of the reason why he supports Obama:

“We burned a lot of bridges. I want someone like Barack Obama speaking for us. It's a time when you're afraid to turn on the news. It's rough, it's tough. He was a guy that stood up; that guy, I want to roll with.”

This is not our election, but when you see people like Piven with an acute awareness of what went wrong and the right way to fix it, you forget for a moment that you cannot cast your own vote. You just cheer them on, wish them good luck with their project and hope that the other shoe does not to drop.

It may not be our election but it sure feels like we all ought to be concerned with it. Terror does not live in a vacuum.

Here is a video of Piven talking at Purdue.

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Posted by lova