Come back Hillary,
come back John

It was a radiant Hillary Clinton who appeared on TV yesterday gratefully thanking the voters of New Hampshire who overturned her recent setback in Iowa by giving her a lead over her fellow Democrat, Barack Obama, who quickly recovered from the loss, still mouthing his clichés of hope and change. Indeed, it was a very different Hillary from the teary-eyed one who tried to rally her supporters just a few hours before the voting started.

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What could have turned the votes around after Obama seemed to have them all in his bag with his astounding win in Iowa ? Some say it was the last minute appeal of Hillary, who, analysts said, won the women to her side when she finally showed that she was not the cool, emotionless and calculating female they thought her to be, but was just another woman, with all their vulnerabilities. It seemed, though, that the senator from New York and former first lady of the United States , had been able to touch the right chords at the right time.

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But could it also have been affected by the CNN sortie into the village in Kenya where the immediate ancestors of Barack Obama are living? A CNN reporter went into the distant “barrio” where the candidate's grandmother – not his great-great grandmother or even great-grandma, but his father's mother, Sarah Obama – was interviewed while paring vegetables, her chickens clucking around her in their typical African house. The reporter had to rely on an interpreter to talk to her and obviously found her a very simple person, quite happy to be subsisting on local fare and working with her hands for her family. Obama's uncle, said, was, fortunately, able to speak a little English.

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I don't mind admitting that I really was hoping that Hillary would make it. I just feel she would make a more competent and capable president than Obama who sounds just a bit too raw and lacks political finish yet. He may be a good talker, and has charisma, but that wouldn't be all he would need to lead. I was also alarmed by the claim of an Indian citizen who, when interviewed in his country after the NH primary, said he was worried about the Muslim middle name of Obama. I forgot, though, whether his grandma's maiden name was Obdango or Obdanjo.

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As for the Republican Party's John McCain, my, that sure was an upset that neither Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney had expected. But, as the triumphant McCain declared after the votes were counted, he was also doing a comeback, even if, at 71, he could no longer be considered a kid. He didn't mind that some people described his feat as a comeback from the dead. But, as another Republican contender said, Iowa and New Hampshire are only two states, there are 48 others to be accounted for. That we have to watch for.

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Back to our own country where politicians are already wrangling over an election still three years away, the list of potential candidates seems to be growing by the day. Well, at least they will not have to go through the agonizing primaries as in the U.S. It will be their own parties and partymates who will prop them. But, oh, let's consider the fact that we may have a dozen parties and as many bets then, since, unlike the U.S. which has only two, we have an open field out here.

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At the moment the gripe of the hour is the announcement of the Malacañang that the President had cut the tariff on imports by ONE percent, an amount immediately sniffed at by both politicians and militant groups. And they have reason to do so, because of announcements at the same time that the price of oil products will go up by P3 to P4 a liter before the first half of this month. What is happening to us? One step forward, four backward?

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By the way, Bacolod Police Chief Ronilo Quebrar should vet again the character and capability of his so-called enforcers. After noting that long lines of trisikads always park themselves at the exit gate of the Lupit church, which is the wrong side of the street for them, I called the attention of the enforcer who was standing a few meters from the corner, chatting with a cop. I asked him why such violation is being allowed and why he does not ask them to move, and he just said they would not obey him, because even if they had been apprehended by the police the night before, they still returned. I asked him if he should not continue to call their attention, and he obviously was not willing to do his job. I am calling the attention of Police Chief Quebrar: the enforcer's name was UMADHAY. I think neither you nor the city needs him. We are only wasting the people's money paying for alleged TRAFFIC enforcers like him.*

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