Brooke Burke's Win

It is by accident that I tuned on ABC to watch the finale of Dancing With the Stars. It was my first time to watch Brooke Burke dance and I was captivated by her. She truly deserves to win.

I first saw Brooke Burke on the E! Channel as a reporter or host -- whatever she was called -- back in the 90s. She was younger then and she really looked hot. She was even more beautiful than the celebrities she was interviewing. Even now, she really looks fantastic and a very regal, very classy dancer.

This season of Dancing With the Stars, I watched only a total of three shows. I heard they had ten weeks but it seems to me that it took them forever to finish the season. Maybe because the competitors are celebrities and they have obligations to attend to? Maybe it is the presidential election? I know there were lots of replays shown in between.

Politic Speak

Politicians know how to mince words. During the campaign, we were all bombarded by negative advertisments proclaiming the evils of the candidates approved by the running opponent. During the debates, interviews and speeches, blatant exchange of words came from left and right, criticizing, discrediting, embarrasing, to the point of maligning the other.

Now that the election is over, the winning candidates would just want to forget about what was said of them during the campaign. Those who lost would say they would work with the elected officials. When asked pointedly about what they said during the campaign, the losing party would say that those are things that they saw firsthand and are still "bothered" by them but "having said that", they would be "honored" to accept a position in the administration. The winning candidates would rather not comment and said to set aside "politics" for now and get going.

But how can you set aside politics when it is the very arena they are all in? Government is politics. And if they all said things just to win the election, then all of them are not taking politics seriously. They are just playing us all around, telling us anything just to get our votes.

Jonestown

The other night, I watched CNN Presents Escape from Jonestown. Even if the tragedy happened thirty years ago I shivered with all the details recounted and retold in the show. The images were disturbing, the story was haunting. I went to bed with Jonestown in my mind. Glad it was not in my dreams.

I was thinking of this man, Jim Jones, who was naturally gifted to have such charisma to attract followers of that magnitutde. I know most politicians possess such charisma. That inclination to influence others, to inspire, and to persuade. Some people with that gift use it for good, some use if for evil. Jim Jones used it to build a cult and what a tragic way it ended was more of like a success to him.

I looked at my own daughter and thought of the three hundred children who were killed at Jonestown. Their mothers were blinded by their faith that they killed their own children. And then I thought of the year 1978, I thought could be one of those children. If by some twist of fate, I could have been part of Jonestown.

I want to erase the image of Jonestown in my mind. And somehow, I even wish I did not see the show at all.

Echoes of the 2008 Presidential Race

Now that it is over, these are the words and phrases that reveberate in my thoughts from the 2008 presidential campaign as I heard from the mainstream media, the advertisements, strategists, reporters, analysts, key party people, and the candidates themselves:

yes, we can
spread the wealth
95 per cent of the population
maverick
sidekick
joe the plumber
I voted with the president 90% of the time
redistributionist-in-chief
unprecedented
drill, baby, drill
historic election
first african-american
America is worth fighting for
exit polls
10 billion dollars a month (military spending)
the mac is back
socialist
untested
21 months (of campaign)
Des Moines, Iowa
popular vote
270 electoral votes
bipartisan
tax cuts
under $250,000
under $200,000
under $150,000
definition of rich
this campaign has ran out of gas (from CNN analyst to McCain's campaign)
battleground states
tightening of the polls
no one has won the presidency without winning Ohio

The following are not direct quotes but somehow kind of laid out each other's tactic during the 2008 presidential campaign:

Barack Obama:

These are the reasons why you should vote for me....

John McCain:

These are the reasons why you should not vote for him...

After the election, what's next?

There will be a severe withdrawal from a lot of people because the campaign is over, the election is over, and all that we have seen and read and watched are coming to an end. Politics will have a rest and we ordinary people who are spectators (and participants, too) to this magnitude of an event will have to return to normal.

So Barack Obama is now the president-elect of United States-- just as I thought, just as I knew, just as I hoped for. What's next? Is my CNN and Fox News viewing has come to finality? Suddenly, these channels seem to be less appealing to me. For weeks, from watching the second presidential debate, I was hooked to watching politics and history unfold. Now, am I back to home decorating, families with up to 18 children, and HBO movies?

Most probably.

The television has indeed made a great service to me. I watched all the grand slam tennis, the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the Beijing Olympics, the World Series, and the just concluded presidential election with passion and indescribable enthusiasm. What is wrong with me? Why do I like competition so much?

For sure, I'll be back watching more Noggin with my daughter.

Cindy McCain's Elegance

I watched the interview on CNN of Larry King with Cindy McCain, the wife of presidential candidate, Senator John McCain. And hands down I would say she is a woman of class.

Cindy's smile never left her lips and her answers are to the point and spoken with charm and grace. I could not help thinking if it was scripted because she was never caught off guard of the questions. Rather, she was spontaneous, was witty, and her laughs come easy as well.

Cindy is a picture of elegance and well-heeled manners and she is very First Lady-like. If only that would count as a vote for Johm McCain he would win this election.

Michelle Obama's Appeal

I watched Michelle Obama spoke in Nevada day after the election aired by C-Span channel. She embodies the American dream. A woman of color from a working class family and now she is moments away from being the First Lady -- the first African American First Lady.

And she is a very good speaker. She speaks from the heart. She relates to people. Like her husband, she experienced difficulties in life growing up but she persevered to have a college education. All throughout her speech, she referred to her husband as "Barack." She recounted the presidential debates, the campaigns in the primary, and the hardships she and her busband went through as they started a family citing that their college loans were just paid off several years ago.

Like Senator Obama, Michelle spoke of possibilites. Possibility that parents can send their children to college; possibility that out of hard work, their children can start their own companies; possibility that their children can someday run as president of the United States. I saw a couple of women behind her wiped out tears from their eyes.

Michelle said that because her husband knows the struggles of the working middle class-- like health care, college education, and retirement-- he is in the best position to help them.

Dynamics of Age

It saddens me to hear that Barack Obama's grandmother mother died a couple of days before the election. She would not see the day when her grandson would would win the election as President of United States (not yet but I'm keeping my fingers crossed). I also feel sad that Obama's mother did not had the chance to know her son would be president one day.

Ironically, John McCain's mother is still alive. McCain is 72 years old and if Obama's grandmother was 86 years old, she would be younger than McCain's mother. And McCain is of course older than Obama's mother. She died at 53 in 1995.

I don't know what got me into calculating the ages of Obama's mother, grandmother, McCain, and his mother. I think I'm just sad that for some time is short and for others time is long. Made me think of my own father and mother. My father is a year older than McCain and my mother is two years older than Obama's mother. And I'm really glad they're still around.

McCain in Indiana on Election Day

For once, John McCain did not attack Brack Obama in his speech. It's election day and the presidential hopeful is still making a campaign rally in Indiana. His speech is the same old speech that was heard of him over and over again in different states before different audiences. But for the first time, he did not mention the name of his opponent.

What a change. I was tired hearing his attacks of Obama. Why not develop his own case and speak about it, make a great deal of it, and make himself stood out rather than destroying the credibility of his rival? I think deleting Obama in McCain's speech is a positive change. But alas, this is the day the campaign ends and this is the day America chooses. By a large margin, pollsters are uniformly saying he would lose. I can't help but admire his vigor, his enthusiasm, and hope that he can still win.

Senator McCain, with all his achievements and service to the country would make a good president but the tactics of his campaign fell short of what he would be capable of in leading this great nation. He is 72 years old and he may not have a chance to run again. I will feel sorry if he loses.

Bias In the Media

My PC crashed two weeks (Tuesday, Oct. 21st 08) before the election and since I have then I have turned to television to feed my fancy for mass medium. That's when I began obsessing about the election. That's when I become this storehouse of knowledge on the campaign that is going on. I watch everything that has the presidential topic on it. Never mind where the argument is leaning to: McCain or Obama or Palin or Joe the Plumber. I watched them all.

I know the media is partisan and bias. I know every anchorperson, man or woman, writer, reporter, on the house or on field, has her bias, her belief, her judgment, and who she would be votng or had voted for. I can tell. Even if the program is supposed to be unbiased, nonpartisan, objective, or proclaimed to be of "no bullshit," the media cannot hide under these pretense. After all the people who operate them are still citizens with sound mind and the right to vote.

But no, I don't blame the media if they are fair to one party or patronizing to another. It's rather impossible to be in the middle in this event, so much more with a presidential election which is very historical. The country is posed to seat an African-American president. This is the biggest news in the world in a lifetime.

And yes, I have my candidate, too. And because of that I would like to hear more about him, no matter how bias it is. Good to say, there really is no unfair bias standpoint out there regarding my candidate. The hallmark of journalism is still implemented and the media try its best.

Tomorrow is election day. It's almost gone.