The dream ticket?

The United State of America might be an independent sovereign state with a uniquely defined political history, but its unequivocal role in global issues makes it a centrepiece.

Whatever concerns this superpower of a nation, equally concerns the rest of the world - even the remotest area on this planet and beyond. It is often said that when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches cold. This is seen or realised on a number of fronts - economic, security, political, etc.

For instance, the ‘war on terror’ is being fought for America thousands of miles away from her shores. And also the so-called credit crunch is being felt in major financial centres far far away from Washington DC, where the plug is being pulled by the 51% US owned so-called World Bank.

This explains the level of interest of the outside world in the  election of American presidents and other authorities. Actually, the kind of person that occupies that White House tells loads about the country’s relationship with the rest of the world. Perhaps this is what the good people of this great nation know that makes them wary about who they put in it.

Moderation is a key value in American society. Admittedly, this is a virtue, and it can be rightly linked to the steady progress towards the American dream. In order to convince their electorates, aspiring candidates do everything reticently, apparently to keep from public awareness the slightest clue of fanatical manifestation of any kind. Americans are a people that shun extremism in every aspect of life - until it catches them by surprise whenever a commie-hating, Islam-bashing  and bible-thumping President gets into the White House!

Talking about moderation, the charged countdown to the much fancied ‘Super Tuesday’ took a new - but not an altogether surprising - turn. The most celebrated moderate Americans were been used as the yardstick. And again, the focus was more on the democrats than their republican opponents. First it was the fracas on the role of one of America’s most popular, if not the most popular, black citizen, Martin Luther King Junior.

The level of destruction that caused the candidature of both Clinton and Obama was more or less the same in proportion. But they both were quick to make up for it. Americans, they probably would have admitted to themselves, are certainly not ready to kill the spirit of their dream, even before it is realised, by attacking the architects of that dream. Soon the two candidates were speaking in a typical democrat tongue. A rather familiar American identity.

Later, the debate shifted to the legendary Ronald Reagan. And interestingly, it was not the republicans but rather it was the democrats that were sparing no effort in likening themselves to the arch-Republican and all-the-above-extreme-things Reagan! Who said America is ever divided? Never!

And so we come, dear patient reader, to the surprise they have in store for us. It will be a Dream-Ticket of Clinton for President and Obama for VP come November. First woman and first black man in the formerly all-male-caucasian-protestant White House. Surprised? Surely you didn’t think this before?