Thursday, February 21, 2008

Obama, Stumbled upon and all the exciting jazz..

That I was a Hillary supporter some time back does not surprise many of my friends. Many think I am a feminist (I will argue that later, much later). What you need to know is that, back then, I had not done myself the favor of reading(a lot, at that) about Hillary and Obama. In due course, I did follow all the debates, arduously read a lot. What seemed totally ridiculous was when people (read journalists and people) popped the question - "So, do you support Hillary(for she would be the first woman President) or Obama(for he would be the first African American president)?". Seriously, are one of them chosen for these reasons? Sure, it sounds exciting. Woman president and African American president. I did give in to this in the beginning. But at the end of the day, we like what we like because it appeals to us. It appeals to us because it resonates with our perceptions of the world and the way we want it to be. With the democratic front-runners the same is true. Obama fires up people because he either knows what people want or he knows at the least what they want to hear. In all the debates and speeches I have seen, Hillary has been vanilla. On the contrary, when I watch and listen to Obama I get excited. He exudes the appeal that I have often only heard of- that of someone inspiring. There is really one thing that sets him apart from Hillary: It seems to me, in as much as Hillary speaks well to people, she does that to get up there in power. She gives me the impression that she only "performs" her "rosy" talks to get into power. Now that is not the impression Obama gives me. With him, its the opposite. He seems to want to get into power to perform on those tasks and deliver the promises. In as much as I want to support a would be woman president, I strongly feel she lacks the chutzpah that she needs. And Obama effortlessly exudes that a great deal.

It was not too long ago when people would gamely demur the candidacy of Obama against Hillary.Recently, when I was commuting back home in DC I got into a conversation with an NPR employee. Until then I thought NPR employees are well informed enough to make their decisions. This woman was meaning to vote for Hillary. Much to my delight, I managed to change her mind. Whether she did vote for Obama is a different issue. But hey, i can be a great campaign manager!

And now for what I stumble(d) upon!
If you use firefox, you have to, have to, have to, download the plug-in "Stumble upon". Thanks to Kaku for introducing me to it. It is like Dig or del.icio.us but much more exciting. You can discover so many cool websites with the click of a button. Here are some fun sites I discovered:

All of George Orwell's works
Diamonds
Paint it!
Horses can sing too
Pug doggie
London
The no buttons interface

Go ahead and install this plug-in. As my friend points out it is damn addictive. And I say its just too cool!

9 comments:

Anurag said...

hmm...maine bhi suna US mein elections ho rahe hai

my GK sucks :o(

nutty said...

Obama vs Hillary - no comments.

Stumble - serious advice - stay away!! Or you'll see precious hours wasting away clicking that silly button!!! really!!

Unknown said...

Nicely written...I have been meaning to read about the elections but haven't read a things about them. :(
Can I add you to the list of people I read...that way I don't have to go to your blog from Nuttys...

CandidConfessions said...

Anurag.. You dont raelly feel the need to read about the elections in US if you are in India.. Neither would i have..

Nutty - Thanks for the suggestion, which I agree with to a certain extent..

Chaitali - Thanks for stopping by, and sure you can add me to your list.. :) Thanks for that!

Karthik said...

obama was here at CMU! u missed it

Amandeep Singh said...

a nice read...

n y ai have that plug in...its cool!

Lucifer said...

politics...american politics...politics based on ethinicity n gender...nothin much to say to dat...except a shake of d head!!

broca's area said...

Obama is for US as Vajpayee[ex prime minister] was for India

Unknown said...

i read all of your blogs, and i really like them. Your language is crystal clear, and your expressions are unique, not to mention the thoughts. You could stretch it a little more to accomodate everything you think. On the whole, it all sums up to a great read. Bravo !