Subject: Mr. President Elect - Now The Bad News - You Won!  The Whole World Expects You To Perform A Transformational Miracle - Something Like Walking On Water.

Bravo America - We can say this now with certainty - it was not a mirage - Barak Hussein Obama’s Color was fading as the election time was nearing.

More and more white American’s given the choice to elect Obama or McCain realized that Obama is just like them - he had white grand parents who helped in his upbringing in predominantly white top schools the kind of schools they wished they could have attended. However, they realized also that Obama has a further advantage over them, he was culturally exposed to other worlds also - and with the collapse of the American economy, and the clear signs that America is now dependent on a plethora of cultures and colors, he may indeed have that important advantage over McCain, who though held in a Vietnamese prison, clear to all, did not learn anything from that experience, and willingly stepped into the Iraq puddle, caused by the same industrial interests, that gave the US and the world, that old Vietnamese swamp.

The good Americans know that a name does not make a man. They also feel that they were taken by the moneyed class and that much of the above-the-table anti-Obama arguments were contrived. Like their fathers or grandfathers generation when the best were “commies” and the worst were the “McCartyites, there was nothing wrong with having now casual association with folks that tried to ration differently their way at a time that the leadership of the country failed them. This is clear about the reformed Ayres & Dohrn couple, and I am now also more lenient about Wright, who it turns out was not even on the list of direct enemies compounded by the Anti-Defamation League.

The outgoing White House saw the world in Black & White. The New White House will see the world in shades of gray - and perhaps, after a while, some intellectual will stand up, and declare for all to hear, that time has come to change the name of that carbon clad building (this thanks to the insistence to be fossil fuels addicted, of the outgoing residents of the building) and call it rather the Gray House in recognition that policy is the art of compromise in a very varied world.

So, Mr. President Elect, we hope someone will show you these notes, and you feel then that you are not alone - that many people, even though they did not say this earlier, feel for you and like you. Those are the real good news!

The real bad news are that out of the Bushes you get a world that is short of trees and it is now for you to start planting the needed ideas, and the needed majestic trees, of all kind, that eventually will make the country truly great again, and help the whole world - because America does not stand-alone. As we said earlier today - Europe is waiting to renew its special relationship with a USA leader, and much of the rest of the world will love to see the rising of a benevolent leadership in what is still the major power of the world, though brought down to its knees - as beggars - because of the misdeeds of that above mentioned moneyed class.

———

Watching the TV pundits at election time, we know that 62% of the voters thought that the main problem now is the economy - then in highly decreased figures follow Iraq (10%), terrorism (9%), health care (9%), and energy policy (7%).

We trust that you will take the topics of energy policy, including all what revolves on climate change issues, and the health care topic, and use the opportunity given to you to turn those areas into the lever that will help straighten out the economy. This is the essence of your mandate and we are ready to bet that you will be using your great gift of possessing such great gray matter, and finally unwind the country, and the world, from the addiction to oil that was imposed on all of us by your predecessors. This will also help make great strides in solving the remaining main issues - that of terrorism and that of Iraq. And remember - 93% of those that voted for you showed optimism that under you the economy will improve - only 6% felt that nothing will change.

Further, remember - somewhere above 72% of the first time voters voted for you. When only the young first time voters were noted - the figure was even higher. While 78% of the voters said that age was an important factor in the way they voted, when it comes to the question of race the results are even more interesting:

From among those that said that race was an important part of their decision-making, in for whom to vote, it was 55% that decided to vote for you; on the other hand, from among those that stated that they were color blind and race was not important in deciding to vote for you - the figure was 53%. This leads to the clear conclusion that many whites, specifically in the first group, actually voted for you as a statement that they had it with the thinking of previous generations - they wanted to see change, and race is reintroduced by them in a positive way - right there - on purpose.

Also, what strengthens further your position is the reaction overseas. Not just the great happiness and pride shown in Kogelo, Kisumu, Kenya - but all over the world. To see on TV the people of Beijing saying OBAMA - they never went out of their way chanting BUSH - brings the point home that there is goodwill out there to work with you. They will honor you for who you are as long as you allow a modicum of respect for them also - The world is hungry for an American President that is open to consider all interests  rather then being a hunter for natural resources, and show of disrespect for the havoc this drive for resources causes to the local folks “over there.”

Yes, there is a yearning for “transformational” change and “generational” change, and a return to CAMELOT - something like a Camelot II led by a gray Kennedy that can make everyone feel younger and transformed.

EU asks US for greater role on world stage - 04.11.2008 - 09:27
—————————————————————————-
The EU has in a letter to the next US president appealed for a greater
European role on the world stage, more engagement with a resurgent Russia
and more emphasis on peacemaking in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

 http://euobserver.com/9/27043/?rk=1

***

Netherlands want IMF transformed into global financial supervisor - 03.11.2008 - 17:44
—————————————————————————-
Setting out their stall ahead of the upcoming emergency meeting of the G20
group of nations that is to focus on a global solution to the ongoing
financial crisis, the Netherlands has called for the construction of a new
‘Global Financial Stability Organisation’.

 http://euobserver.com/9/27034/?rk=1
***

France pushes for EU common front ahead of global financial summit - 03.11.2008 - 17:32
—————————————————————————-
Finance ministers from the 15-strong eurozone are to meet in Brussels
tonight to discuss French-tailored ideas on how the international financial
system should be regulated in the face of the current crisis. Meanwhile,
Spain is pushing to win itself a seat at a Group of 20 summit on the issue
in mid-November.

 http://euobserver.com/9/27032/?rk=1
***

Barroso backs Spanish seat at G20 summit - 04.11.2008 - 09:28
—————————————————————————-
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has called for Spain, the
fifth largest economy in the European Union and the eighth largest in the
world, to be invited to the upcoming emergency G20 meeting in Washington on
tackling the global financial crisis.

 http://euobserver.com/9/27041/?rk=1

***

——————–

Mary Dejevsky: Will Europe get the America it wants?
On this side of the Atlantic, there is a certain amount of wishful thinking

The Independent of London, Tuesday,  November 4, 2008.

(A Revealing Photo -REUTERS/Jason Reed - Obama speaks during his final campaign rally before the US presidential election in Manassas, Virginia, 3 November.)

We are dreaming, we Europeans, of Obamaland: a temperate land of sunshine and showers, of soft music and plenitude, of conciliation and concord. We think we caught glimpses of it in July, just fleetingly, behind the garden wall at Number 10; on the steps of the Elysée Palace, and beneath the Victory monument in Berlin, where the would-be US President finally spoke to us, before being whisked away again.

And we concealed our very slight disappointment – that he seemed so camera-shy; that even in Berlin he could not quite treat us to the same soaring rhetoric that he lavished on his fellow-citizens; that he still seemed locked in the “war on terror”. But we gave him the benefit of the doubt. After all, even in Europe he was still campaigning. He had his home audience to look to, and Europe furnishes many a photogenic backdrop. We would bide our time, mouthing “Yes we can” in silent solidarity, and hope against hope for a Democratic victory.

Unless the polls are very wrong, Obamaland is materialising almost as you read. And, as we anticipate the long transition before Inauguration Day, our wish-list is almost complete. From a President who had barely travelled outside the US before taking office, we look forward to one whose peripatetic youth surely makes him a citizen of the world. From a President who believed US military superiority was there to be used, we welcome one whose stated preference is for talking first – even to adversaries -– and calling in the force of arms only as the last resort.

And we especially welcome someone who, even as he regrets his lack of a foreign language, seems – do we flatter ourselves? – to want to master fluent European. When the worst the Republicans can find to throw at him is to denounce his economic remedies as “socialist”, is it not time to roll out the red carpet?

Europe’s leaders might already be jockeying for the privilege of being first to greet the new President, but the code of Obamaland would remove the need for such undignified scrambling. The new President would be the one to hop on the plane for a lightning tour of European capitals. And this time Chancellor Merkel would have no objection to a speech at the Brandenburg Gate, especially one scripted as an apology for the Bush era mistakes and a pledge of more equal transatlantic relations … Barack Obama has only himself to blame if he has spun dreams.

Yet all that is certain as Americans vote today is that Obamaland, if indeed it emerges from the ocean mists overnight, will not be as we imagine it. The landscape may be more familiar than the oil derricks of Texas and the barbed wire of Guantanamo, and so may be the lexicon of its leader. Perhaps, too, he might even forsake tradition and make emergency fence-mending with Europe his priority. It would be a bold overture and one that would set another tone. But Europe is deceiving itself if it believes that everything that has gone awry in recent transatlantic relations derives from the alien character and rank incompetence of George Bush.

Recent concentrated exposure to US opinion on the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation – at a conference in the quintessentially English setting of Ditchley Park – suggests a startling degree of wishful thinking in Europe about the speed and direction of any change. Yes, and a reluctance to abandon long-cherished illusions. The most obvious of these is our European belief in a philosophical gulf, almost as wide as the Atlantic, between the leaders of Obamaland and Macainia as they train their telescopes on abroad. To be sure, from London, Paris or Berlin, the landscape and the language of these two Americas can look very different: one closer to our European image of ourselves, the other less so.

But the similarities are striking, and significant, too, especially on foreign policy. A President Obama is pledged to end the US presence in Iraq, but so – to a not much shorter timetable now – would be a President McCain. Internal change in Iran and North Korea may soon negate the sharp divergences that opened up between the two during the campaign. And while a President Obama has set as his absolute foreign policy priority the commitment to stabilise Afghanistan – a President McCain would also be confronted with the same imperative to avoid what many already fear could be defeat.

However consensual an approach to foreign relations the campaigning Obama has favoured, however softly he wants to speak to the European allies, he will carry the big stick commended by Theodore Roosevelt. That brings with it capabilities and opportunities that will divide the US and Europe, more than they will unite – as they have increasingly since the end of the Cold War. Barring developments unforeseen today, Afghanistan will be the first test of transatlantic relations, and it will be a severe one.

Mr Obama would not be the accomplished politician he has shown himself over the past year, if he did not exploit his honeymoon with a joyful Europe to demand a vastly increased force contribution for Afghanistan. Those countries deemed not to have pulled their weight will be called upon to do so; saying no will not be an option. Even in Obamaland it will be argued that two futures crucial to our mutual well-being are on the line: a stable Afghanistan free of terrorist camps, and the continued existence of the transatlantic alliance.

Except that it is not at all clear how far European leaders, and more particularly their electorates, will accept that analysis. Does a lawless Afghanistan represent a potential terrorist threat of such an order that a costly war has to be fought and won there? Europe has its own backyard to patrol, notably in the Balkans.

Might Afghanistan be the point at which Europe calls an end to fighting wars declared in Washington? Do we risk defeat in Afghanistan only because the terrain is tough, or because Nato, without the cold war enemy, is unsustainable?This question, lurking since the collapse of communism, will be posed with some urgency, whether Europe finds itself dealing with Obamaland or McCainia. The paradox is that a more congenial and communicative partner could foster straighter talking – and with it mutual recognition that it may be time for our two destinies to move apart.

 m.dejevsky at independent.co.uk

 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/com…

——————–

US election day - Leading article: Obama may lack experience, but he doesn’t lack command.
The Independent of London, Tuesday, 4 November 2008

A Revealing photo - GETTY IMAGES (A tear for Madelyn: Barack Obama shows his emotions after speaking about the death of his grandmother at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, yesterday. Madelyn Dunham died at the age of 86 after a battle with cancer.)

Only in America. Tonight, or early tomorrow if John McCain makes a close race of it, the world will learn who is to be the 44th US President. And, unless we are about to witness an upset that would make Harry Truman’s comeback win in 1948 against Thomas Dewey look routine, that person is expected to be Barack Obama.

At this brief moment of calm, when the campaigning is over but the result is not known, it is worth stepping back to consider just how amazing the event would be. At one of the most difficult moments in its modern history, the US seems about to reach not to a grizzled senator or governor, not to a general or a businessman – but to a new and dazzling political talent who was virtually unknown barely four years ago.

Of course, Mr Obama has been fortunate. He ran in a year that even before the financial meltdown was always going to be difficult for Republicans. His marathon 50-state primary battle against Hillary Clinton meant he had a solid organisation in place across the country well before the general election campaign began. Indisputably, he has also had a gentler ride from the media than Mr McCain. But gifted politicians make their own success. Over the past two gruelling years, we have learnt a great deal about Mr Obama. He is formidably intelligent. Unlike the “tested” Mr McCain, he did not become rash or flustered at difficult moments. The three candidates’ debates showed he is poised and collected under pressure. It was said of Franklin Roosevelt, one of America’s very greatest presidents, that he had a second-rate intellect but a first-rate temperament. On all the available evidence, Mr Obama is top class in both departments. And by now the “inexperienced” tag has become somewhat worn. Yes, assuming he is elected, he will bring a thinner CV to the office than perhaps any president in history. But the past two years have tested him mightily.

Mr Obama has never run anything, it is said. Not true. He has run arguably the longest, the biggest and the best organised campaign ever. Its discipline has been astonishing – in contrast to the campaign of Mrs Clinton that was once supposed to sweep all before it. And he has taken on the Democratic Party establishment as represented by the Clintons. In two years, Mr Obama has not made a major blunder. Yes, he has had a dedicated, top-notch team around him. But that too augurs well. Clearly, Mr Obama knows how to put the right people in the right jobs, a vital part of being president. And then, of course, he has style. Not since JFK will America have had as charismatic and inspirational a leader. Charisma and soaring oratory do not guarantee good government. But America is demoralised, exhausted and broke. It needs to turn the page on its recent past. And for that, it needs words, as well as deeds, to inspire it.

The election of Barack Obama will be a gamble. He may prove a disappointment like Jimmy Carter – another leader who emerged from nowhere, full of good intentions but overwhelmed by the job. There is no knowing. Nothing quite prepares a man for the presidency.

What is certain is that Mr Obama provides excitement, a desperately needed jolt of political electricity. If he is elected, America will instantly be seen in a new light around the world – not just because the unloved George Bush is gone, but because the country has found it within itself to turn to someone truly new, whose astonishing ascent could have happened nowhere else on earth. Only in America.

 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/lea…

———————

 Hermione Eyre: From behind Obama, I could see a girl moved to tears …
A Limey busybody, I joined the ranks of campaign volunteers

The Independent of London, Tuesday,  November 4, 2008.

Barack Obama is good at looking after his volunteers. On Saturday I found myself standing right behind him, catching a smile, as he addressed 10,000 supporters at a last-minute rally in the swing state of Nevada.

My ringside seat was a reward for having been up since 5.30am helping direct the crowds through the airport-style security checks – and sitting there, close enough to try and make out my blobby face behind him on YouTube, was just the kind of experience that keeps campaign teams charged up through the final push.

He really does have the charisma of a film star, supremely relaxed and confident. The stage management was smooth – he walked on to Kanye West’s remix of Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up”, and the bright Vegas sunshine provided the ideal spotlight.

You would never have guessed from his performance that he had been delivering roughly the same speech three times a day at rallies all over America. He made his message of change and hope sound fresh, almost spontaneous. John McCain claims to be the inheritor of Reagan but it is Obama who is the gifted actor.

From behind Obama I saw what he saw: a sea of T-shirts printed with that bold, self-consciously iconic image of his own face; a girl moved to tears in the front row; a few placards that looked home-made but were in fact painted the night before by volunteers (in this age of image control, no one is allowed to bring their own, non-vetoed posters in with them. You can see why; certain phrases – like, say, “black power” – would make winning some states considerably more difficult).

Obama spent about five minutes greeting volunteers, neither shaking hands nor high-fiving, but making a gesture somewhere between the two, gracious yet informal. Pressing flesh is one way of keeping the supporters going. On Sunday he went for another method: he made a conference call to 20,000 party workers. “It was just for a few minutes and he sounded tired but it was good to hear his voice,” said Dallas, a Vegas-based activist who was also entrusted with driving Obama to and from his plane.

During the drive Obama took a call from John Kerry. Minutiae like this keeps staff going; they love it. The tiny Obama office in each district is powered by this kind of gossip as well as boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. At the branch in Southern Highlands where I have been volunteering, a sign reads: “Do NOT assume we’ve won. We haven’t.”

The atmosphere is anything but complacent. A highly targeted campaign sees registered voters being visited every day, sometimes by Limey busybodies like me; sometimes by supporters who have been bussed in (or rather, have driven in – the concept of public transport is not strong here) from neighbouring California, a safe Democrat state, to lend a hand.

I met one retired teacher, here for five weeks, and some Berkeley students, here for five days. Another last-minute fillip was the arrival of Michelle Obama on Monday, holding her own rally in a sports centre out of town.

Canvassing Las Vegas over the past few days has been a mixed experience. An alarming number – maybe one in 10 – of smart middle-class homes in gated communities have been repossessed, their doors double-bolted with a special foreclosure padlock. The sub-prime crisis has hit Las Vegas hard. Then again, about one in five households has gone for Halloween celebrations in a big way.

Out hanging doorknobs with last-minute advice cards (”Your local polling station is … “) we encountered plenty of hostility. One man in army fatigues gave a satirical salute and told us, “the white race is over”. A particularly vituperative woman told us to get lost because she had voted for Hillary Clinton and then switched to McCain (”You got a Puma!” our organiser told us – “Stands for ‘Party Unity My Ass’”).

“I have three – no, two words for you – three days!” said Obama in a rare moment of confusion at the rally on Saturday. Now those days are up. The Nevada Democrat campaigners are exhausted and nervous, although not so nervous that they haven’t planned a huge party to be held in the Rio, a casino that stands out for its gaudy neon façade even on the Vegas sunset strip.

Perhaps he’ll drop by, or make a conference call. We’ve started to believe the senator can be everywhere, always. Although helpfully, after Obama’s rally on Saturday, hostile Republican flag-wavers were out to remind us of one thing: “Obama is not God”. Thanks for that, angry lady with the placard. We won’t expect free drinks for 5,000 at the election party then.

 h.eyre at independent.co.uk

 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/com…

————–

Obama’s beloved grandmother dies.
By David Usborne
Tuesday, 4 November 2008

(Revealing photo - GETTY - Barack Obama with his late grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham, who died on Monday 3rd November aged 86, and his grandfather, Stanley Dunham)

Barack Obama made no secret of the reason for his 36-hour dash to Honolulu when only ten days remained before decision day in the presidential race. His beloved grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, was gravely ill and he was afraid she might not make it through to the campaign finish.

A television script-writer might have hesitated before capping this sub-plot to the Obama odyssey this way, however. Stricken with cancer, the 86-year-old former bank executive slipped away just hours before America is to decide whether to put the man she helped to raise into the White House.

The candidate was campaigning yesterday morning in Jacksonville, Florida, when aides gave him the news of his grandmother’s passing. He and his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who still lives in Hawaii and campaigned for him there during the primaries, issued a joint statement shortly afterwards.

“It is with great sadness that we announce that our grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died peacefully after a battle with cancer,” they said. “She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances. She was proud.”

Described by those who knew her as a humble woman with a no-nonsense streak that she imparted to her grandson, Ms Dunham was a quiet pioneer of women’s rights, becoming one of two first-ever female vice presidents of the Bank of Hawaii in 1970.

A native of Kansas, she married Stanley Dunham in secret before leaving high school. Mr Dunham, a furniture salesman, moved his wife and their daughter, Stanley Ann Dunham, to Hawaii in the late 1950s. (Stanley Ann because he had wanted a boy.) It was in Honolulu that Stanley Ann met Barack Obama Sr, a Kenyan student with whom she was briefly married.

It was the grandparents, however, who stepped in to look after the couple’s child, young Barack, after his father left Stanley Ann. She later married an Indonesian man and moved to Jakarta. For much of that time, however, her son remained at school in Hawaii in the home of his grandparents.

“She’s the one who taught me about hard work,” Mr Obama said in a tribute to his grandmother while accepting the presidential nomination. “She’s the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me.”

 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/…

————-

The last lap: Obama and McCain traverse US in final dash for votes.
By David Usborne in Chicago , The Independent of London, Tuesday, November 4,  2008.

The longest and most expensive presidential race in history drew at last to a frantic, frenzied close last night, with Barack Obama and John McCain hopscotching across America, panning for the final errant votes in key battleground states and trading eleventh-hour attacks on the economy, jobs and environmental policy.

In the final hours of the campaign, Mr Obama meanwhile found himself distracted by personal bereavement, announcing that his 86-year-old grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, had died after a battle with cancer. He said that he learnt of her death yesterday morning while he was still campaigning in Jacksonville, Florida. “She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility,” he said in a joint statement with his half sister, Maya Setoro-Ng. “She was the person who encouraged us and allowed us to take chances.”

Mr McCain issued condolences to his opponent on hearing the news. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to them as they remember and celebrate the life of someone who had such a profound impact in their lives,” the statement by John and Cindy McCain said.

Last month, Obama took a break from campaigning and flew to Hawaii to be with Dunham as her health declined but yesterday he planned to complete his campaign commitments.

At least one million people are expected to converge on Grant Park in downtown Chicago tonight, hoping to witness Mr Obama taking the stage in the day’s dwindling hours to declare victory and to celebrate becoming the first African American to capture the land’s highest office.

With the soaring skyline of the Chicago Loop and the pale waters of Lake Michigan as the backdrop, the event site featured a large catwalk-style stage for Mr Obama to make his address. For the first time, it featured two tall bulletproof glass barriers on either side of the podium, amid heightened concerns for his safety.

While the polls continued to give the fuller wind to the Democrat, his Republican opponent stayed scrapping to the end, embarking on a gruelling 17-hour swing through Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada. Mr McCain will wind up his campaign with a rally in Prescott, Arizona, this morning before presiding over his own election night party in a Phoenix hotel.

“There is one day left until we take America in a new direction my friends,” Mr McCain said, his only hope for victory resting on capturing nearly all the remaining undecided voters and additionally peeling away some of Mr Obama’s supporters.

He is also counting on the base of his own party coming out and defying the enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats. That so few turned up to see him yesterday was an ill omen – George Bush drew a crowd of 14,000 for an eve-of-election event in the same Tampa venue four years ago, Mr McCain barely managed 1,000.

Mr Obama, whose blitz of media interviews yesterday took him even into the territory of young men and visible underwear – he told MTV he wished young men would keep the waistbands of their jeans somewhere close to their waists – kicked his day off in Jacksonville, Florida, in an arena where, weeks before, Mr McCain asserted that the fundamentals of the US economy remained “sound”.

Mr Obama mocked the now infamous economic analysis of his rival. “Florida, you and I know that’s not only fundamentally wrong, it also sums up the fact that he is so out of touch,” the Illinois senator declared, triggering a ripple of jeering from the crowd. “You don’t need to boo,” he replied without pause. “You just need to vote.”

Officials in many states are bracing for polling stations to be swamped and legal challenges to be launched if the results are close. A record turnout is expected after a 21-month marathon that has gripped America like no election in generations. As many as one-third of all ballots had been cast even before today as more states than ever allowed early voting. Offering possible encouragement to the Obama camp, officials in most of those states reported that a heavy majority of those who got in line early described themselves as Democrats.

Little separated most eve-of-voting polls. Among the last polls, Fox News gave Mr Obama 50 per cent nationally to 43 per cent for Mr McCain. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll gave Mr Obama a 51-to-43 lead.

How long it will be before the country and the world knows which way voters have gone will depend on whether Mr Obama achieves the blowout some expect or if tonight turns out to be a nail-biter. The first clues will come at the closing of the polls in Indiana (at 11pm GMT) and Virginia one hour later. Both states historically vote Republican but are thought to be in play tonight. Also under the microscope will be Pennsylvania, a state with 21 electoral college votes that Mr McCain really has to win if he is to have any hope of stopping the Obama tide but where polls have persistently shown him behind.

The passion felt by the supporters of each candidate may be more intense than anybody can remember; thus terrible disappointment is now just hours away for one set of supporters.

Officials in Chicago, Mr Obama’s home town where he will watch the returns tonight, know that Grant Park – the lakeside patch of grass that was the site of clashes between police and anti-Vietnam War protesters in 1968 – might be the scene of one of the biggest victory parties the world has ever witnessed – or the world’s biggest, most disconsolate political wake.

 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/…

***

Europe awaits new US president in time of crisis.
RENATA GOLDIROVA, for the EUOBSERVER from BRUSSELS, November 3, 2008.

She writes - Some 130 million American voters will elect on Tuesday (4 November) the new man to take over the White House. Be it Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama, the winner will significantly shape EU-US relations at a time of worsening financial crisis.

The last 18 months have seen one of the most acrimonious and certainly the most expensive presidential campaign in US history, with Barack Obama currently ahead in all opinion polls.

Most Europeans would vote for the Democrat candidate

 ***

According to the latest CNN national ‘Poll of Polls’ (2 November), the 47-year old lawyer and the first African American nominated by a major political party for president has a seven-point lead over Mr McCain (53% to 46%).

But up to eight percent of people remain undecided - enough to swing the result - while turnout is expected to reach its highest figure since 1960, with some 20 million Americans haveing already cast their votes.

In the final hours on the campaign trail, both candidates are battling for “must win” states - Ohio with 20 electoral votes for senator McCain and Pennsylvania with 21 votes under the system for senator Obama.

At the same time, they both were faced with undesirable surprises.

Sarah Palin - the US vice-president hopeful in the McCain camp - found herself caught up in a phone conversation with a Canadian comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy. During the six-minute chat, they discussed hunting, Carla Bruni’s looks and Ms Palin’s presidential prospects.

Mr Obama, for his part, had to respond to a finding that his aunt from Kenya, stayed illegally in the US, despite immigration authorities turning down her asylum request four years ago.

Europeans for Obama:

US elections are followed closely on the other side of the Atlantic for their enormous global impact - especially at a time when Europe needs America to help tailor a global reform of the financial sector and to boost the fight against climate change.

If Europeans had a vote, Barack Obama would beat John McCain by large margin. He enjoys greater popularity due to the fact that he represents a more evident contrast to the politics of the outgoing president, Republican George W. Bush.

Mr Bush’s eight-year-long term has been marked by a unilateral decision to invade Iraq - something that his reputation has never recovered from, even though he later reached out to consult Europe on issues such as Iran.

According to Tomas Valasek from the London-based Centre for European Reform, none of the presidential candidates will ignore the EU’s opinion on major foreign policy issues, but each of them will bring different arguments to the table.

Barack Obama has shown more willingness to judge countries on an individual basis, not strictly within a war on terror framework, Mr Valasek told the EUobserver, citing views on Iran and Russia as significantly different to those of Mr McCain.

The Republican presidential candidate refuses to engage in talks with Tehran over its nuclear programme and he also adopted a more critical stance on Russia’s military action against Georgia in August.

McCain’s views on Russia are more in line with a Polish and Czech foreign policy approach, while Obama would gain sympathy in Germany, France and Italy, Mr Valasek said.

Financial crisis:

But the transatlantic agenda will be dominated by the financial crisis and poor economic prospects for both continents.

On 15 November, the United States will host a “Group of 20 summit,” which should kick of talks on how financial markets should be regulated. Apart from the US, the group involves Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the EU representative.

According to Mr Valasek, Mr Obama seems to agree with Europe when it comes to a possibility of state interventions into economy, but the risk lies in his protectionist rethoric. This could worsen the current situation, he said.

Daniel Gros from the Centre for European policy studies in Brussels described Mr McCain’s approach on the financial crisis as “more impulsive,” while noting that Democrat Obama had a very good team of advisors.

“I am certain that Obama will very carefully listen to the very good technical advice he gets,” the analyst said.

———————-

Obama surges ahead as US prepares to vote.
By Leonard Doyle, The Independent of London from Washington DC, Monday, 3 November 2008

Barack Obama is entering the home stretch of the race for the White House with an aggressive foray into traditionally Republican states, a sure indication that his campaign is in far better shape than the doomed efforts of his Democratic predecessors.

Senator Obama’s final sprint took him from Colorado and Nevada on to the industrial battleground of Ohio, where the latest Mason Dixon poll shows him leading by47 per cent to 44. Accompanied by Bruce Springsteen, Mr Obama was making a final pitch to white blue-collar voters who make up 45 per cent of the electorate. Ohio is also a make-or-break state for John McCain, since no Republican has won the White House without capturing it.

In Ohio, Mr Obama chided his opponent in a television ad that mocked the Republican’s endorsement by the deeply unpopular Vice-President Dick Cheney. “I’m delighted to support John McCain,” Mr Cheney said in his home state of Wyoming before praising the vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In the Obama ad, the announcer says: “That’s not the change we need.” Today, Mr Obama begins a final dash for votes in the delegate-rich state of Florida. He then heads to the Republican bastion of North Carolina and intends to bring his epic campaign to a close with a late-night rally close to the Civil War battlefield of Manassas in Northern Virginia.

Mr Obama’s confidence seems to be well justified by the polls. The latest Washington Post/ABC national tracking poll gave him a 9 percentage-point lead over John McCain. He is far ahead in enough states to capture more than the 270 electoral votes that he needs to win. In the Senate, Democrats are within reach of winning 60 seats for a filibuster-proof majority and in Congress they could double their 2006 wins to have the largest majority since 1990. In the dying hours of the campaign, Mr McCain has only one viable path to victory left. He needs to hold on to every battleground state and pick off a delegate-rich Democratic state such as Pennsylvania as well. However, the polls put his opponent so comfortably ahead there, that Mr Obama is not even bothering to campaign in person in the final countdown.

Another tactic the Republican side is employing is to warn wavering voters that a victory by Mr Obama will give Democrats unfettered control of the White House and Congress. They will use it to raise taxes, expand the government and fly the flag of surrender in the war on terror, at a time of crisis.

While the strain is clearly showing on Mr Obama’s face, (he uncharacteristically snapped at reporters following him and his daughter to a Halloween party at the weekend) his opponent, despite his 72 years, is showing no signs of flagging. Mr McCain even made time for a detour from his campaign to make a hilarious cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live alongside the actress Tina Fey in the role of Sarah Palin.

Mr McCain was back on the trail in Pennsylvania yesterday, hoping to repeat Hillary Clinton’s wounding victory over Mr Obama in the primaries. Then he was headed to New Hampshire; a state that has been kind to him in the past and has twice brought him back from the political dead.

Mr McCain is facing stiffer headwinds in both these states this time with both tilting firmly to his opponent. Mr McCain was due to make a midnight dash for a rally in Miami last night. His final 24 hours before the polling booths open is set to be a blur of must-win states including appearances in Florida, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Mexico and Nevada. The Republican is spending election day in his home state of Arizona, which could also be vulnerable according to the polls.

Mr Obama’s confidence in his strategy is seen by the fact that four years ago at this stage, John Kerry was still hunting for votes in Pennsylvania and only dipping his toe into the red states of Ohio and Florida. In 2000, Al Gore was floundering in Missouri, Ohio and Florida on the eve of the election.

Senator Obama’s final appearance in Virginia, where only 11 electoral votes are on offer, is an opportunity to drive a nail into his opponent’s political coffin by snatching away a state that has been reliably Republican for decades.

But his decision to hold a final late night rally at Manassas, or Bull Run, scene of a famously bloody Confederate victory that led to the conflict being called the war of Brother Against Brother, is an opportunity to promise bipartisan leadership from the White House.

After a bruising presidential contest, marked by a viciously negative campaign of character assassination against him, Mr Obama wants to conclude with a gesture of national healing and a final appeal to undecided Republicans.

Mr McCain advisers maintain that his salvation will be so-called “Wal-Mart women” making less than $60,000 (£37,000) a year. Those female voters are said to have found a hero in Sarah Palin and working-class men have been inspired by Joe the Plumber – the McCain theory goes.

There is little or no polling evidence to back up the theory but two consecutive defeats in presidential elections mean the Democrats are anything but complacent about the final outcome.

Stan Greenberg, who was Bill Clinton’s pollster, is predicting a watershed election in which Senator Obama could take the White House with a filibuster-proof majority of 60 in the Senate and that the Democratic margin in the House could double.

 

Asia-EU Summit to Address ‘Financial Tsunami.’
Analysis by Antoaneta Bezlova, IPS, October 23, 2008

BEIJING, Oct 22 (IPS) - Cast in the role of global saviour in the unfolding financial turmoil, China is playing host to a meeting of Asian and European leaders in Beijing this week that is expected to castigate the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism and press for a reshaped global economic order.

“Can Asia be global economy’s best hope,” asked an editorial in the Economic Observer last week. Noting that Asia hardly played any role during the global economic recovery after the Great Depression of 1929, the paper suggested that the continent’s established and emerging economies constituted the world’s best chance for recovery after the “financial tsunami”.

“And even if the Wall Street demise does not instantly signify the triumph of Mahathir’s Asian model, it is the beginning of a much-needed readjustment of economic power in the world,” it concluded.

More than 40 leaders will converge in the Chinese capital for the 7th Asian European Meeting (ASEM) summit from Oct. 24 to 25 to discuss the global financial crisis and a plan for joint action.

Aside from the 27 EU countries, 10 ASEAN countries, the European Commission, China, Japan and South Korea, the summit will be attended by three other Asian countries — India, Pakistan and Mongolia. The talks will be co-chaired by France, which holds the European Union’s presidency, and China.

***

“China maintains that the international community should strengthen cooperation and jointly handle the current financial crisis on the basis of equal consultation,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in Beijing on Tuesday. But he warned that “developing countries’ interests and concerns should be fully respected and safeguarded.”

China — a major emerging economy which sits on 1.8 trillion US dollars worth of foreign exchange reserves — has been looked upon as an important player to lead the way out of the global financial meltdown.

U.S. Treasury Department officials and politicians have all called on Beijing to show a pro-active attitude and join efforts with the Western world to fight the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Qin Gang said Beijing had adopted a “responsible and constructive attitude” in dealing with the crisis. But few details have emerged over the role China is expected to play. Latest economic figures show that the country’s economy is also vulnerable to the effects of the global economic slowdown.

The National Statistics Bureau said on Monday the economy expanded by just nine percent in the third quarter, the slowest rate in five years. By comparison, the economy grew 10.6 percent in the first quarter and 10.1 in the second quarter of 2008. The slowdown was blamed on plummeting demand for Chinese goods as consumers in the U.S. and Europe cut back on spending.

In recent weeks Beijing has grown more critical over the lack of financial surveillance in developed economies, which it blames for the spiralling crisis. The deputy governor of China’s central bank, Yi Gang, who took part in the emergency G20 meeting in Washington earlier this month, chastised the International Monetary Fund for allowing too much leverage in the system and failing to exert control of big Western financial institutions.

He told the media that “weak financial-policy discipline resulted in excess global liquidity and disorderly capital flows”. The line has been echoed in a numerous articles and columns in the Chinese media attempting to dissect the reasons for the downfall of Wall Street powerhouses. Some have sung an “eulogy to U.S. capitalism” while others have proclaimed the end of the “era of Washington consensus”.

But there has been less certainty about what would replace the current order of international capitalism. “The demise of Wall Street Anglo-Saxon model doesn’t signify the victory of China’s financial modus operandi,” said a commentary in the 21st Century Economic Herald.

“Even as we criticise Wall Street’s excesses, we should be aware that China’s model of financial operation is not necessarily the answer,” it said. “True, Chinese banks are stable and they don’t pursue excessive profits blindly. But they are far from free from red tape and administrative interference.”

According to Qin Gang the ASEM summit offers the “perfect platform” for leaders to discuss ways of dealing with the crisis.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has proposed a global system of financial supervision that would empower international bodies including the International Monetary fund to monitor global markets and act as early warning systems. French President Nicolas Sarkozy — one of the summit’s coordinators — has pledged to use the meeting as a platform to persuade Asian nations to take part in a plan for the rebuilding of international capitalism.

“What has happened is an act of treason against the values of capitalism; it is not a result of the market economy,” said Sarkozy during a speech Tuesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

“The most simple solution” for the global summits would be to bring the G8 (group of eight) largest industrialised nations together with the five biggest emerging economies, led by China and India, he told European politicians.

Chinese analysts anticipate that the summit may produce an agreement for the establishment of a joint trust fund between Asia and Europe, similar to the one launched during the second ASEM summit in London in 1998, to combat the Asian financial crisis.

—————

The update comes October 31, 2008 to the original posting of October 25, 2008 and it deals specifically with the place of Mongolia in all of the above. This because of a breakfast meeting at the Asia Society in New York today, October 31, 2008 - the traditional Halloween day, and I will mention after a few further lines why I say this.

The meeting today had the title - Mongolia Rising: The Incredible and Continuing Story of Mongolia’s Emergence as a Free Market Democracy.

At the breakfast meeting spoke the US Ambassador to Mongolia, Mr. Mark C. Minton, and in the audience sat also Ambassador Ms. Enkhtsetseg Ochir, the Permanent Representative of Mongolia to the UN. Jamie F. Metzl, the Exec. VP of Asia Society chaired.

Strangely, when I looked up the website of the Asia Society, I found that on October 31, 2005  The Asia Society  Washington DC Center had a meeting on Mongolia. Here the strange coincidence of the Halloween date repeating itself exactly three years later and my possibility to compare the progress of relations between the US and Mongolia in the last three years - to the date.

The information from 2005 - http://www.asiasociety.org/speeches/us-m…

Strangely, already at that first meeting there was a reference to Halloween, but that was a very serious meeting - “US-Mongolia Relations: History and Future Prospects.” That meeting, according to the pdf had a large cast of Ambassadors participating, including Tony Lake, and it was arranged before President Bush trip to Mongolia - the first Summit of a US President with a Mongolian President. Since then there was a return visit - a Summit of the presidents in the Washington DC White House in 2007.

Mr. Mark Minton, a career member of the US Foreign Service got to UlaanBataar in December 2006 after having served in Korea and Japan, so he was in Mongolia for the last two years of the US- Mongolia rapprochement.

So why Mongolia? It is a country, the size of Alaska, of 3 million people, and 45% live now in the capital area urban environment. Culturally they are close to Tibet and are of the same religious belief as the Tibetan Buddhism, thus I would assume also close culturally to Bhutan, but they were a nomadic people.

In the 20th century that brushed with Soviets, Chinese and Japanese occupation and are fiercely intent on preserving their freedom. Being geographically wedged in between China and Russia, they want that “third neighbor” that geography did not give them. So thy go the long distance and want the US as their third neighbor. To reach the US they developed their democracy so they can interact with countries beyond their two immediate neighbors. They reorganized their army as a peace making army and they participate in UN peace missions like Sierra Leone, and with the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. in exchange the US established an AID program involved in preventive health care and in construction workers education as the transformation from the nomadic lifestyle created needs for new skills in the housing sector; further the US Peace Corps are active in Mongolia - it is actually the largest per capita Peace Corps location. But obviously the US does not have Mongolia to itself, the Japanese foreign aid is the largest in Mongolia and the EU, Australia, and Canada are also active.

Democratization made large progress - there is transparency, a judiciary, there are elections and they have a market economy and the leaders are involved in diplomacy. They are visited often by the Dalai Lama and the university is in exchange with the University of Alaska.

Obviously, the US is interested in Mongolia’s mineral resources - so is China. Peabody Coal and Rio Tinto International are active in Mongolia. Hilton International opened this year. Mongolia is becoming a middle income country. It is landlocked but is starting to take advantage from its location by becoming a country of transit between China and Russia.

In the democracy department there was a blemish recently when after the summer elections there were riots. The Ambassador explained those as inexperience because they have an army but not good police service. The fact was that the army, that was trained for peace work, did not know how to act when called in after the opposition protests about the elections. The authorities panicked and the army was inefficient.

An adviser to Nature Conservancy criticised the ambassador as he said nothing about the environmental problems and the mining industry. Further there are issues resulting from foreigners buying up grazing land for meet production and farming.

The nuclear issue came up as Mongolia wants to be part of the six Party talks on North Korea programs. Further, what was not mentioned is that Mongolia declared its nuclear-weapon-free status. In effect I have in front of me UN General Assembly document A/c.1/63/L.28 where Kazakhstan, Morocco, and Mongolia brought up together Mongolia’s rejection of nuclear weapons. Also, in recognition of their specific situation, Japan let Mongolia host one of the six-Party talks commissions.

Japan is also looking into the problem with desert dust from Mongolia reaching Japan.

From all this material, what is China doing when insisting in bringing in Mongolia to the meeting they hosted between the 27 EU countries and the four major Asian economies, when besides Japan, India and Korea, they also invited Pakistan and Mongolia? We understood Pakistan as sort of balance to India, but now we also figure that bringing in Mongolia has more to do with trying to redirect this country towards Europe and weakening a runaway relationship with the US directly, or via Japan.

The bottom line is that because of size and economic potential, Mongolia is a country with much higher importance then it might be assumed from the mere 3 million people. China night then want to keep it in its own orbit and to guard it from  “third neighbors’” exaggerated footholds.

China’s Key Energy Policy Institution Joins REEEP

Beijing, October 30, 2008

Today at the Global Wind Energy Conference in Beijing, the Energy Research Institute (ERI), a key division of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), formally joined REEEP.  NDRC is the main policy making body in China on energy, environment and climate change. The signing ceremony was attended by senior Chinese government officials from NDRC and the National Energy Agency (NEA) and also representatives from local diplomatic missions of key REEEP partner and donor countries – United Kingdom, Norway, Australia and Italy.

ERI is a national research organisation conducting comprehensive studies on China’s energy issues. It is guided by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in many aspects of its research work. The work carried out by ERI forms the basis of Energy and Climate Change policy implemented in China by NDRC.

Speaking at the Global Wind Energy Conference, ERI Director-General Han Wenke stated “Joining an international partnership such as REEEP allows the Energy Efficiency Center and the Center for Renewable Energy Development (CRED) to further strengthen their ties to international experience. Experiences that can be of use here in China”.

Mr. Li Junfeng, Secretary General of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association who is hosting the REEEP East Asia Regional Secretariat, indicated that ERI has been working closely with REEEP in China from both project and strategic sides. ERI’s joining the REEEP will enhance the existing collaboration between REEEP and ERI, and bring multi-benefits to both parties as they share a common aim regarding the promotion and deployment of renewable and energy efficiency technology in China.

ERI’s joining of an international clean energy partnership is an indication of the Chinese government’s desire to accelerate energy conservation and renewable energy in the country.

REEEP has been working in China since 2003, implementing sixteen projects focused on policies, regulations, finance and business issues. REEEP and CRED, one department of ERI focusing on policy research for renewable energy, worked a National Implementation Roadmap for Wind and a study on the potential for Biomass Co-firing in coal-fired power stations.

China intends to use REEEP as a vehicle to gain access to international experience and best practices on energy efficiency and renewable energy, in order to strengthen the significant efforts that China has already made  in renewable energy and energy efficiency development.

REEEP announced plans to work with the Chinese government and industry associations to develop a report on Chinese Achievements in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.

REEEP will also work together with ERI to support new policy measures that increase the role of sustainable energy in China’s transition to a low carbon economy.

Dr. Marianne Osterkorn, REEEP International Director, stated “while China is becoming the world’s leading economy, China is already the world leader in renewable energy and taking major steps towards energy efficiency. It is remarkable that China gives such importance to renewable and energy efficiency, and that they value their importance on the path to a lower carbon economy.

Agata Gago
Media Relations
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP)
International Secretariat
Wagramerstrasse 5
1400 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +48 503 180 791
 http://www.reeep.org