What if Barack Obama does not win?

Senator Barack Obama is leading in all polls in the race to be the American President. As I write, he leads 51.1 % to 44.2 % against Senator John McCain, on the Yahoo poll. He should therefore win by a landslide, but will he?

I wonder because of historical reasons. There is the so-called Bradley effect, named after a black politician, Tom Bradley, who led by a long way, in the polls, in the race to be California governor in 1982 - but then lost the election. The common understanding of that situation is that white people did not wish to be seen as racist, in polling, so declared that they would vote for him - but that in the privacy of the polling booth, their true opinions showed - and they voted against him. One concern is that the same thing might happen to Obama: if America is still sufficiently racist, there might be a surprising degree of votes against him - and votes for the other candidate, John McCain, simply because he is not black.

There are other concerns too. Many believe that the 2004 election of George Bush was flawed, owing to electoral fraud. There were some shocking practices at work. In one case, an area received more votes for the Republican Bush than there were actually voters in that area! Clearly, fraud was at work here. There were also allegations of interference with the electronic voting machines, with staff from the company that made the machines seen entering instructions into the machines shortly before a change of voting pattern of against Bush, to for Bush.

Worse still, in some Democratic areas of America, voting machines were unavailable for up to seven hours, leaving potential voters unable to vote AT ALL. They either had to queue for many hours - or give up and go home without voting. Of course, many of them did just that, giving the election to Bush. Will there be voting machine shortages in Democratic areas in this election?

In the present election, too, there are other worrying developments. In some areas flyers have been distributed, on official looking paper, saying that Republicans are to vote on November 4th, and Democrats on November 5th. Should any Democrat believe this, they would turn up on the 5th to find the election over.

I find all of this very disappointing. America is supposedly the world's leading democracy - but it suffers a little too much from the dishonest actions of individuals trying to influence the outcome of the election, by any means possible. This needs to be curbed. It would be wise to trace the culprits in all irregularities and confer long prison sentences upon them, to discourage such practices in future. Whether the Americans will do so, is another matter - after all, if the practices are too widespread, the winner of the election may have been "elected" by them - and would hardly, therefore, be interested in punishing those responsible.

Senator Barack Obama is leading consistently in all polls, across the board, with margins in some polls of up to 13%. If he does not win, therefore, there will be the widespread belief, in America, that the polls have been rigged and that the election has been stolen. (There will be this belief even if the true cause is that of racism: such is the effect of the instances of electoral irregularities that have come to light, so far.) This belief can only lead to trouble on a grand scale. It is quite possible that America will see nationwide riots, if it is President McCain, rather than President Obama.

Even if President Obama is duly elected. I have one further concern: what if he is assassinated? America nurtures a fairly large body of white supremacists: surely they would find the election of a Black President, insufferable? It is likely that, upon election, President Obama will become the target of many plots, from white supremacists, to remove him by force of the bullet or the bomb. Should he be assassinated, of course, chaos is likely to ensue in the United States, with the nation divided along racial lines. No doubt President Obama's death would not be the only one to occur should he be assassinated.

America is in a difficult position therefore. If Barack Obama does not win, America will face chaos; if he does win, but is then assassinated, America will face chaos. So, whether or not President Obama is elected, there could be trouble to come, for the United States of America.

As an observer, I find it intriguing that all of these problems come at a time when America is facing its biggest economic crisis in modern times. Whoever is elected, America faces interesting times ahead (in the Chinese sense of the term).

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

Why are politicians so stupid?

I have often wondered why modern politicians are so stupid. At least, they say stupid things and that is evidence enough of stupidity, for me. It puzzles me, really, because when I read of great politicians of the past, quoted (for instance Winston Churchill), I am often impressed by the wisdom, wit or insight of their words. It seems that modern politicians are a lesser breed (quite literally) and have not the basic components of an intelligent mind, to call upon.

I am about to detail the thoughts of a modern politician. I want you to guess the identity of the politician concerned. I further want you to think of what level of political responsibility you would feel safe entrusting to a person showing this level of intellect.

Here goes. The LA Times wrote recently that a leading politician believes that dinosaurs walked the Earth alongside humans, 6,000 years ago. When challenged on this belief, the politician claimed to “have seen pictures with human footprints inside the dinosaur tracks”. This same politician has made enquiries of the library system on how to ban books. This same politician would like creationism (the belief that God made the Earth 6,000 years ago, complete with all life) to be taught alongside evolution, in schools. Pupils would then be able to make “an informed choice”. This same politician is remarkably uninformed about political matters and said on CNBC in July 2008: “As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?” This same politician when asked about their apparent inexperience with foreign policy countered with: “I can see Russia from my house”. When challenged by Katie Couric on CBS News to give an example of a Supreme Court decision other than Roe vs Wade, this same politician said: “Well, let’s see. There’s, of course, in the great history of America rulings, there have been rulings.” In the same interview, this politician was asked to name a single newspaper or magazine that they read and replied with: “All of ‘em, any of ‘em that have been in front of me over all these years.” This leading politician was unable to name a single publication.

Wow. These are the thoughts of a leading politician. Now, answer me this: is the person who uttered these words showing a reasonably functioning intellect? Do you see evidence that they are intelligent and capable? Would you feel comfortable entrusting them with high political office? Answer this: are they profoundly stupid or wonderfully gifted?

Please come to a decision on these matters before reading on.

Those words were spoken by Vice Presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin.

Think about that. She is VP to an old man, who has survived extensive torture. He might die at any time. If she is VP to his Presidency, she could end up as the President of the United States. Yet, on the evidence of her own words, she is an utter moron. She cannot think coherently. She cannot put together an argument. She is not able to answer the simplest of questions, informatively. She appears to be the dimmest politician I have heard of. She makes George W Bush seem like a genius. Indeed, I feel safer having someone of his intellectual calibre running the US, than someone of hers.

How could this happen? How could a woman bereft of intellectual function of even the most basic level end up as Governor of Alaska? How could she be running for Vice President of the United States? Something is wrong with the way politicians are elected in the US. The first consideration should be not how charming they are - but how smart they are. If they are not smart enough to do a good job, they shouldn't ever be in the running, no matter how many people like them. Sarah Palin is not bright enough to be Governor of Alaska, on the evidence above. In fact, she isn't bright enough to be a primary school teacher. (Imagine a primary school teacher giving those answers to a child...just imagine what you would think of that teacher.)

Now, I need to point out that I have NO political opinion regarding the US. I am not involved in who wins or who loses. I am not sure of the differences between Barack Obama, Biden, Palin or McCain...I am just a bystander who finds himself amazed at the stupidity of one of the candidates. Then, again, it should be noted that Senator McCain chose Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. That was an exercise in his wisdom or lack of it. The fact that she is none too bright seems to indicate that maybe he isn't either. You see, if you are bright, you don't choose a stupid running mate. So, I begin to wonder about both of them.

Then, again, Barack Obama has seemed a bit superficial to me, at times, in his answers - as if either he can't think too deeply, or is not well enough informed to do so. All of it leaves me rather worried. I would like to see the USA in hands of someone really, really, bright enough to do a good job. I don't want to see it in the hands of a populist airhead of any race, sex or creed.

The modern politician is a stupid being. That much is clear. However, what is not is why the people of Earth ever allowed this to come to pass. The pity of it is, I suspect, however, that the electorate is too stupid to tell the difference. Thus, stupid people, elect stupid leaders, who make stupid decisions and stupidly destroy the countries they lead. Then again, financial institutions seem pretty good at doing the very same thing. So, politics doesn't have a monopoly on stupidity.

I would like to see a higher value being placed on intelligence as a quality in leaders of all kinds. Then, perhaps, we might have a world in which countries function well and wisely - and the world doesn't face the kind of global financial crisis that it now does.

So, I vote for wit and wisdom. Unfortunately, I can't find too many candidates who qualify. They must be hiding somewhere - or perhaps, wisely, thought better of getting involved in politics or finance in the first place.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)