THE U.S. ELECTIONS... MORALITY COUNTS!!!!

Just a short note on the U.S. elections -- the candidates should remember that morality counts a lot in how voters vote. Hillary is viewed as clean. It was Bill Clinton who strayed -- and he has had the good sense to be goood to Hillary. On her part, Hillary has been perceived as a good wife who stood by her man. She is seen as exemplary woman and spouse to Bill Clinton and all the clips of her and her daughter together shows that she has the most excellent relationship with her daughter. Bravo.

Barack Obama is also seen in a moral light. He has a good relationship with his wife and daughters and this comes through to voters and television viewers alike. (One prays that Obama will not do a Tony Blair on the American -- and by extension the world -- public: i.e. have another child while in office. We would like to think that leaders are in office to make the country a better place and NOT SPEND THEIR TIME FORNICATING WITH THEIR OTHER HALVES! Can you imagine a world leader getting up in the middle of the night to feed the baby etc etc. What kind of attention can such a leader give to his country?)

As for the other candidates, there are a couple of old men with young wives and Rudy Giuliani is a standout for all the wrong reasons. He was involved in a nasty divorce and, morally, is obviously unfit for the White House. Whatever the lives of the American electorate might be like - be they happy, sad, miserable, in a depression, socially dysfunctional, have addictions, be in an unhappy relationship, have secret lives etc etc -- when it comes to their leaders, they want a role model of sorts! Like the rest of the people in the world.

TOP WORLD LEADERS

POLITICIANS WHO ARE IMPRESSIVE... AND OTHERS WHO ARE NOT

BEST POLITICIANS...
1. IMPRESSIVE: Germany's Angela Merkel is turning out to be a remarkable politician indeed. She is the first female chancellor of Germany and, by jove, she has got the idea of statesmanship down pat. She demonstrates elegantly that a country's leader does not have to make a lot of noise and preen in front of the media to get the job done. Sometimes, a leader just has to be there -- that is all that is needed done!

2. FANTASTIC: China's leaders Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao are also exemplary leaders - able to manoeuvre such a complicated country as China with suuch dexterity and speed. If they can refine the health aspect of the country -- in terms of food safety and putting a lid on environmental pollution, this will truly be the Chinese century.

3. WORTH WATCHING: Australia's Kevin Rudd is a breath of fresh air and a valid replacement of the decrepid John Howard.

4. HERO-WORSHIP POTENTIAL: Whatever you say about Bill Clinton, he is making himself out to be quite the humanitarian and beautifully positioning himself to be a respected elder statessman of global politics. Clinton deserves praise for all the good that he is doing.
(The only complaint I have against Clinton would be having had a duffer of a dullwit like Al Gore as his vice-president. I still find it hard to forgive Gore and that despicable bulldog-looking Madeleine Korbel Albright for coming to Malaysia and throwing this country's politics into slight disarray with uncalled for criticism many years ago during the previous Prime Minister's regime -- these two fools Gore and Albright unwittingly empowered the Islamic fundamentalist party PAS at that time through their stupidity and utter ignorance! The American ambassador at that time also deserves a thorough beating for doing a lousy job of being an amabassador at that time, feeding Washington biased reports after listening to the disgruntled arty crowd that didn't know the reality of life in Malaysia.)

MOST MISSED POLITICIAN...
1. ELEGANT AND CREDIBLE: Junichiro Koizumi is the former Japanese prime minister who made people sit up and watch when he took the stage, either in Japan or the world stage. An impressive man, he brought Japanese political bullies swiftly to their knees and it was the height of the good that politicians can do too the political machinery in their country. Now, if only he had done something about the distressing Japanese whale-hunts...



LAUGHABLE LOT...

1. PUPPET THEATRE: Afghanistan and Iraq now are ruled by U.S. puppets and the outcome of such political manipulation is not going to be good. Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai and Iraq's Jalal Talabani appear ineffectual and obviously actinng as U.S. puppets. As former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan said, the oil interest in Iraq is the main reason the Republicans' leadership is maintaining a military presence in Iraq and the whole world can see this. May the democrats win the U.S. election and George W Bush be booted into oblivion in history books for the evil that he has unwittingly done in destabilising the middle east (and thus endangering the liberal and progressive non-Muslim populations that live in Asian countries, especially in south east Asia).


MOST HATED...

1. VILE VILLAIN: Tony Blair should be collectively cursed by the population of this planet for being the despicable politician that he is.