The 2008 US Presidential race

In 2008 it is more likely that the following republican & democratic leaders face off for the general election.
From the republican side its going to be Mitt Romney & from the democratic side its going to be John Edwards.
And in the general election, John Edwards would narrowly win.

You may ask why do you think that way? Here's why.

From Democratic side look at the nominees

Hillary Clinton:- The reasons why she cant win
1) Her past & Present as a polarizing figure both in whitehouse & Senate.
2) Her past scandal, the whitewater scandal. obviously there is no smoke with out fire.
3) Her pardoning of Clinton for her political gains,why else would some one pardon him for repeatedly cheating on her .
4) Uninteresting personality, in the sense that what she does & speak, is more like a parrot taught to say the nice things. She seems to be worse than kerry in that.
5) Most times she comes through as a tough, arrogant,sleazy personality.
6) America is not ready for a woman president, though every one says they are ready in heart of heart they are not, so when the time comes to vote most of them are not going to.

Barrack Obama:- The reason why he cant win
1) He is inexperienced.
2) America is not ready for a black president.
3) He talks more about hope than about substance.In terms of clear policy view he doesnt come out well. America dont need a pastor,it needs a president.

Joseph Biden:- The reason why he cant win
1) Too Old.
2) Too long as a senator
3)Cant Say the right things. Should keep his mouth shut.

John Edwards:- The reason why he can win
1) He is a white Man,right age & noncontroversial religion.
2) He has just about the right Exeprience in senate.
3) He has come out with substantive suggestions.
4) Pretty Face.

He appeals to everyone.


From Republican side look at the nominees
John Mccain:- The reason why he cant win
1) Too Old & too long in washington.
2) Too inconsistent.Tries to please everyone,just like hillary & end up looking like a flip flopper.
3) Short tempered & could end up saying something silly.
4) Uninteresting, & anti incumbency factor.

Rudy Guiliani:- The reason why he could be a surprise candidate.
1) Socially Very Liberal.
2) His stand on National policy unclear
3) Problems with Religious Conservatives
4) Can spring surprise...

Mitt Romney: Why he can win
1) Conservatives endorsed him. That takes care of his mormon faith.
2) Good track record as Ma Governor
3) No controversies.

Why John Edwards would win in general election.

Edwards is a better known person than romney. Romney's mormonism would comje to haunt him in general election.

The Iraq Solution

The Jim Baker, Lee Hamilton Iraq study group came up with a bipartisan report on Iraq. The Report acknowledged the hopelessness of the Iraq situation & recommended solutions. Unfortunately the solutions, I think are being mis-interpreted as separate solutions mutually exclusive to each other.Hence there is lot of debate about what is the right approach to Iraq's Problem.
My Take on it is that every one of them is right & all the solutions need to be implemented in a phased manner complementing each other.
This is how it should play out.
US along with its allies should build a diplomatic offensive(as stated in the report) bringing in the shiite & the Sunni Nations. Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan,Saudi Arabia, Pakistan & even Palestine be brought to the table & build an union which on the pretext of building an economic & Social forum for Islamic nations, should in fact be focusing on the Iraq's social & economic situations. Avoid Israel. Including Israel will only aggravate things.Israel issue can be tackled later. They should then ask for military support from these country to train Iraqi Army along with US. This is only to give importance to these countries & giving them a say on the middle east crisis.
As the International Diplomacy is going on, in parallel, US & its allies should engage in Internal Negotiation with the Kurds, Sunni's & Shiite in building a autonomous region with a weak centre as promised in their constitution to come in to effect. The Kurds, Shiites & Sunni's can have their own areas marked and can have their own law & order.They can have a share of the Oil revenues.They can have their own local government.The can build a union something of the sort of united states of Iraq (USI). They can share the army & can have a weak central government which could be the face of Iraq to the rest of the world.
As the above two diplomatic negotiation goes on, US & its allies along with the support of other islamic countries can increase troops in Iraq for a brief period say 6 months to control the violence in Iraq, thus giving some breathing time for the central government to prove to its public that they are serious about their concerns by quickly bring up the basic facilities like Hospitals,Schools, Roads, Water Supply, Electriciy etc.
Once the above three has been acheived & the violence slightly curbed, US can withdraw its troops and move to its bases with in or outside Iraq, so that they can watch from outside as to how Iraqi's can stabilize themselves. In case of any emergency, the US troop can quickly bounce back. The Iraqi's now can manage their own problems with out the military support,knowing that they can fall back on US if things go horribly wrong.
US & its allies should then support these 3 regions with in IRAQ namely the kurd,shiite & Sunni regions with economic help. Allowing these regions to bring economic development & job oppurtunities to their area. The leaders of all three region should be given full confidence & support by US.
I think the above solution, when properly executed can bring peace in the region.

Economic Chain

There has been lot of talks going on about outsourcing,exports from china,India and other developing countries and how USA is losing jobs & wealth.All said and done if you look at it closely,this is nothing but a new form of colonalization.i would say a healthy one too.No, the villains are not he developing countries which are taking away the wealth or jobs, Its countries like USA & europe which engage in these practices that are benefitting, uplifting people in other countries. By outsourcing the daily chores to other countries, they are making themseleves free for more innovation, and enjoying their time doing what they want, at the same time making money, while their work would be done on a different part of the globe. In other words the devloping countries would be doing the work for the Americans,much like the slaves but a happy one.

Surprised,how this happens? let see an example.The textile industries. When the textile industry moves job to china or india, they lay off their american workers.let say an american worker made $1000 per month.now by outsourcing, the cost would com down to say $300 per worker. A saving of $700 per worker per month. Now this directly improves their profitability and therfore the stocks. Now if the same industry gives the stocks of its company to this layed off worker, the situation, indirectly for him is not a layoff but a pay cut of $300. Ideally the more profit the compant makes the more money the investors make, and the worker being a investor makes money.So he gets a $700 paycheck for not working at all.cool isnt it. He has all the time in the world now to do other things or create new business.Now this helps people in other part of the world to rise from poverty through distribution of wealth.

With increase in wealth, these countries are able to exploit the natural resources in their part of the world, which translates to money.Now they too are creating wealth. When the same textile industries sell their product in those countries, they take some of these welth back to their country and also increase the welth of the layed off worker.

In short through outsoiurcing countries like USA are actually uncovering the wealth hidden in other part of the world, and thus everyone is happy.

In another 20 years, this is whats going to happen, USA would be the Invention capital of the world, China the manufacturing Capital & india would be the Servicing Capital of the World.

As USA comes up with new Innovation and revelutionize existing Manufacturing & servicing sectors, it stays ahead economically, and the other two countries would catch up as USA transfers these technology to them, and this would happen in cycles,Pushing Mankind to New Frontiers.

Brain-net

Google the ultimate search engine, WiFi the ultimate wireless connection, and the bio chip that can be plugged into once brain. These are three technologies that exists in todays world in one of the advanced to moderately evolved stages. Now picture this... We implant a WiFi chip in once brain which can then be used to connect to internet via WiFi thereby accessing the search engines. Now any information a person need can be controlled by the neural connection to activate the chip and query the internet thereby retrieving the results and it could be interpreted by the brain. Now what does that mean.
1) We have unlimited capacity.And unlimited knowledge.
2) No need to learn anything.
3) We could connect to others brain, which acts as a server.
So in short, we have the ultimate super brain.

On the downside
1) One could read others mind... Mind hacking
2) Anyones mind could be controlled... hence a great tool for autocratic governments