Guest guest Posted November 5, 2008 Report Share Posted November 5, 2008 India and Pakistan hail Obama win Wednesday, 5 November 2008 The governments of India and Pakistan have given a warm reaction to Barack Obama's victory. Indian PM Manmohan Singh congratulated the US president-elect on his " extraordinary " triumph and said that ties would grow even stronger. He asked Mr Obama to visit India at the earliest opportunity. Pakistan's PM also congratulated Barack Obama on his victory, saying he hoped the Democrat would promote " peace and stability " . " I hope that under your dynamic leadership, (the) United States will continue to be a source of global peace and new ideas for humanity, " Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said in a statement. " I look forward to more opportunities to discuss ways to further strengthen Pakistan-US relations and to promote peace and stability in our region and beyond. " Nuclear-armed Pakistan has been a key ally in outgoing US President George Bush's " war on terror " . The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad say that Barak Obama's focus will remain on Pakistan's battle against Islamist militants operating along the Afghan border. But our correspondent says his administration can be expected to broaden US engagement with Pakistan and is likely to see greater involvement with democratic forces than did the outgoing Republicans, which focused on ties with the army. Other countries in South Asia have yet to react to Mr Obama's win. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7710355.stm , " jagbir singh " <adishakti_org wrote: > > America weighs risk and rebirth > > JOHN IBBITSON > From Tuesday's Globe and Mail > > E-mail John Ibbitson | Read Bio | Latest Columns > November 4, 2008 at 2:53 AM EST > > CHICAGO — A year ago, Barack Obama was just another guy up on a > stage, one of the many also-runnings who flanked presumptive > Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. He seemed a > candidate waiting to be consigned to the asterisks of history. > > Today, unless every poll and credible prognostication turns out to be > wrong, Mr. Obama will be elected president of the United States. > > And he will have done it by just standing there, and waiting for us > to come to him. > > Mr. Obama has not changed over the past year. Those who know him > don't speak of growth or metamorphosis. He is fiercely ambitious - > has been his entire adult life - and he channelled that ambition into > an audacious campaign that harnessed high-tech know-how and strategic > brilliance to a phenomenal Internet-based grassroots movement. > > And yet what mattered most was his constancy. Few Americans had ever > heard of this man. There was little in his background that most > people could relate to. His political résumé was promising but > incomplete. Why should anyone think of voting for him? > > But Mr. Obama knew something about America that it didn't know about > itself. A profound generational shift is under way. The Vietnam War > is finally over: For the first time, a presidential candidate doesn't > need to account for the choices he had made during those years. He > was a child at the time. > > The young are ready to push the boomers aside. The computer has > revolutionized politics, as well as everything else. And Republican > presidential nominee John McCain, whose choices in Vietnam heroically > defined him, doesn't know how to use a computer. > > A new generation of southerners is ready to lay the Old South to > rest. And many within a new generation of African-Americans see > themselves as something other than angry victims. > > Mr. Obama personified the change that was upon America, that the > ossified power structures of both the Democratic and Republican > parties tried to ignore or couldn't comprehend. > > He and his coalition - the young, the re-enfranchised, the savvy, the > forward looking - wrested control of the Democratic Party from its > own leadership, and now they appear bound to do the same to > Washington. > > Through it all, Mr. Obama remained unmovable and, at a certain level, > unknowable, yet somehow compellingly attractive. His opponents' > attempts to smear him as a dangerous socialist with unsavoury > connections to terrorists and radicals failed because most Americans > didn't believe a word of it. They had already taken the measure of > the man. > > Even older voters, even more conservative voters, even white voters > still clinging to racial assumptions listened to him, many for the > first time, the night he won the Iowa caucuses, and they were > inspired. > > They heard him explain his relationship to his former pastor, > Jeremiah Wright, and they accepted that he was no Jeremiah Wright. > > They watched his performance during the candidates debates, and > throughout the unfolding financial crisis, and came away reassured. > > Throughout the campaign, Republicans and other conservatives accused > the media of outrageous bias in favour of Mr. Obama, and they were > absolutely right. But reporters were only seeing what everyone else > was seeing. They drew the same conclusions that the broader > population had also drawn. They didn't lead the electorate to Barack > Obama; they were simply swept along with it. > > Some politicians seek office and power because of the holes in their > lives. Teddy Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton - > these men fought demons that drove them to seek affirmation from > crowds; they sought public life to fill some inexplicable emptiness > within. All were, to varying degrees, brought down by this flaw. > > Barack Obama seems more like Ronald Reagan or Dwight Eisenhower or > Franklin Roosevelt. Openly affable, these earlier presidents > nonetheless kept their inner centres hidden even from their closest > confidants. They neither needed nor wanted to define themselves by > what others thought of them. Mr. Obama, though his ego is larger than > is healthy, seems to share that quality as well. Voters appreciate > that. > > They didn't appreciate the way John McCain changed, and changed > again, throughout the campaign. A sad legacy of this election is that > Mr. McCain, who served his country with honour and distinction > throughout his life, was diminished by his bid for the presidency. > > The happy warrior recast himself as the battle-tested elder statesman > ready for the final challenge. Then he became a maverick - but > against what? His own party? Then he became a Cassandra, warning of > the dark times that would befall the republic if his Democratic > opponent and his shadowy co-conspirators seized power. > > In the end, he just seemed angry and old. > > There is a danger in all of this. Americans are on the cusp of > electing a president they know little about, who knows little about > what awaits him. As with John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, > voters will be sending to the White House a president largely > untested on the national or international stage. All three presidents > made grave mistakes in the early years of their presidency. Mr. > Carter never recovered; Bill Clinton did. With Mr. Kennedy, we'll > never really know. > > But Americans seem to have decided it's worth the risk. It's time, > they've decided, for a rebirth of freedom, time to slough off a > failing generation of leadership and embrace hope for renewal. More > than anything else, they trust this man. > > They may yet be cruelly disappointed. But that is for another day. > > JOHN IBBITSON > From Tuesday's Globe and Mail > http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081104.wcampibbit > son04/BNStory/usElection2008/home > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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