Duel for the White House

While attention is centred on the Presidency in Pakistan, the race for the White House 10,000 miles away has gathered steam, after the formal "coronations" of Barack Obama from the Democratic Party and John McCain from the Republican Party.
The Electoral College in America constitutes 538 votes, divided among 50 states. It is winner-take-all. Whoever takes the popular vote in one state takes all the Electoral College votes in that particular state. So, theoretically one could win the popular vote in America, as Albert Gore did in the election of 2000 by over half-a-million votes, and still lose if behind in the electoral college tally, as in election 2000, when Gore lost by the narrowest of margins due to a disputed Florida vote recount that resulted in Bush gaining the electoral college votes for that state - enough to hand him the election. The winning number is 270 electoral votes. So, in effect, it is the Electoral College result of 50 contests in 50 individual states which is the decisive determinant of who wins.
Elections are set for Tuesday, November 4 and, on January 20, 2009, the baton will pass to the new president, which will formally end the Bush Presidency - arguably one of the most inept and unpopular in modern American history.
Bush may be gone, but the issues he leaves behind will not disappear, including wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Palestine-Israel deadlock, a faltering economy, a resurgent Russia, upsurge in Kashmir, and an overall erosion of US clout.
The War On Terror has inflicted more terror on the innocents than on the perpetrators of terror. In the Middle East - where it matters the most and the stakes are the highest - there is likely to be continuity with failed US policies, for the simple reason that special interests have a stranglehold on this segment of US policy. Barack Obama's running mate, the 65-year-old Senator Joe Biden, Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, however, has a deep interest in Pakistan, and believes in a policy of engagement instead of confrontation with Iran.