A Tear in Time

For Ms Clinton and her run for presidential candidacy, a tear in time saves nine it would seem. Probably only on these shores of the world would such a soppy stunt bring such bullish benefits as have been demonstrated in the New Hampshire Primaries. Elsewhere, the audience would have been either indifferent or embarrassed, either of which response would not have given Ms Clinton any advantage over her significantly more composed opponent, Mr Obama.

In fact, so far Mr Obama has been the more convincing, mostly because of his sincerity. Especially, Mr Obama is definitely not from the Establishment. He is not an Ivy League boy even though he holds a law degree from Harvard. He smiles with warm conviction at the crowds; not with the plastic grimace of his main opponent.

Mr Obama's message of change may be ringing with some rhetoric, but his focus is outwards, his aim apparently for the people, not his own entitlement. In contrast, Ms Clinton seems almost petulantly bent on getting her way on her way to her presidency. She is to her neck steeped in the Establishment - what she calls experience. Such experience leaves one wondering just how much change her presidency would bring. After all, the Establishment prefers the status quo in order to stay established.

So, in the aftermath of the Iowa win for Mr Obama over Ms Clinton at the Democratic caucus, Ms Clinton seemingly got a bit overwhelmed by matters and decidedly soppy on TV - in a calculatedly constrained manner. In a country where everyone seems to relish a tear or two on TV when given the chance and the circumstance, such display was a certain card towards gaining support from sop suckers. Call me cynical, but this is the country that has given us show biz and Hollywood.

After the narrow loss in the New Hampshire Primary, Mr Obama's concession speech was a model of confidence and gallantry. This man must pose the most serious threat to the Establishment since John F. Kennedy. If one person could break the hold of Corporate America on this heralded but undermined democracy, it would be Barack Obama.

Change has a face with an honest smile for once.