Miracle? No! It's organization

Bannered The Philippine Daily Inquirer yesterday, “Hillary pulls a miracle.”

This referred to the victory of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the New Hampshire primary over Sen. Barack Obama by 3 percentage points.

Miracle? No! It was organization. In politics, there is no miracle. If that word is used, it means, in the context of Philippine politics, cheating.

There was no cheating in the New Hampshire primary. The Clinton organization just worked. And former President Bill Clinton, Hillary's husband, has one of the best political organizations.

There were 11 U.S. Presidents after World War II. Seven of them were Republicans and only five were Democrats: Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Only Bill Clinton won re-election despite the many scandals that hounded him. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president for four terms during World War II, 1933 to 1945.

The following were Republican presidents: Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr. and George W. Bush. All won re-election except Ford, who was appointed and beaten by Jimmy Carter and the elder George Bush who was beaten by Clinton .

The year 2008 will be a Democratic year. Hillary has the best chance to be the first Woman President of the U.S. Republican John McCain, at 71, will be fighting an uphill battle, not only because he has to defend the administration and his age, but also because he cannot match the Clinton organization. And behind that organization is Hillary, not Bill.

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If Hillary becomes President, we will find a much closer relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines , not only because Hillary and Gloria, being both women can easily relate with each other, but also because Gloria and Bill were schoolmates at Georgetown University .

And Hillary, reportedly a classmate of Bill and much brighter than Bill, both can claim – Gloria and Hillary – of being schoolmates, too. I am not sure where Bill and Hillary were classmates.

In world diplomacy, personal relationship counts very much. And it was practiced long, long before. Before the Spanish colonization, Emperors of China would gift a Sultan one of his very many daughters to be one of the Sultan's many wives.

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So much with world events. Although we can't avoid the effect in the Philippines on who is the U.S. President.

At the height of student activism, one student said, the Great White Father in Washington D.C. just sneezed and the Filipinos would get the cold. He was not incorrect!

Listening to Hillary and Barack, I believe Hillary will make a better executive.

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Coming home, the $100 per barrel of oil will make life harder for us, especially the poor and those who are wage earners.

At more then P40 a liter for gasoline, I can just look back to 1967 when I bought my first brand new car, an Opel Kadette for only P4,000 and gasoline was at 26 centavos a liter.

But my salary at La Salle was P340 a month.

It was because of that car that, up to today, when Mrs. Nena Garcia scolds me for having a different opinion from hers, I don't dispute her. On learning from her son, Philip who was my student I was to buy a car at Southern Motors, Nena called up Manager T.C. Poon to give me a discount, threatening that they would not buy from him anymore. I got a P200 discount. I bought in cash, after selling my jeep I bought earlier from City Engineer Jessie Sembrano and borrowing from my father in Iloilo .

Well, from 26 centavos to P40 now. From P4,000 a brand new car to something like half a million pesos now, cost of living has been much higher.

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How do you beat an inflationary economy? Don't be a wage earner. Be a producer. If people only follow what Gov. Joseph Marañon has always been preaching, his gospel of food security, this province would not have had any problem.

Grow vegetables in your flower pots. Ten or twenty flower pots with eggplants, tomatoes, or especially sweet pepper, you can be assured of food for your table. And you can sell some, too.

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Meanwhile, we salute Silay City Mayor Jose “Oti” Montelibano on the inauguration of the first flight to Negros Occidental using the Silay airport on Jan. 18.

Given Mayor Montelibano's drive and management skill, expect Silay to surge forward. LGU officials from other towns can learn from how Silay , Murcia , and Bago work out to be progressive.*

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