Clintons, Edwards, and Kennedy's--Oh My!

What a way for us to start out our day-- with sub-zero temperatures and an incredibly energetic rally at an airport hanger in Nashua, NH!! We all filed into the large hanger after seemingly tunnelling our way through a narrow hallway. As the sea of people, cameras and signs grew, our spirits were lifted by the people introducing the Clintons. Hillary, Bill, and Chelsea made their way to the stage greeted by cheers and clicking cameras. Bill gave a great opening for his wife while Chelsea looked on. Hillary started getting her supporters (and those who might have been more unsure) excited and took questions from the crowed like a seasoned politician. Though I might be just a bit biased in my more liberal views, I was very impressed by the way she conducted herself. She did not deny the way she was being cast by some people in the public, but she assured the people that she is not only ready for more, she has been enduring it for 16 years! No matter what, one has to respect that sort of determination and self-confidence. I suppose I am also a little biased because I got a picture with her at the end of the rally!! She made her way around the barriers talking and signing everything from books to baseballs for her excited supporters.
Later in the day we had the great privilage of attending a very small forum with Bobby Kennedy Jr, and his sisters Kathleen and Carrie. We were lucky enough to do some networking at the Hillary rally and got invited to this great event. Each one of the speakers had a different viewpoint for supporting Hillary. Kathleen spoke of her personal relationship with the Clinton family, and how she has seen Hillary in action over the past 27 years and the great care she took in helping others. Carrie has devoted her life to working for human rights and framed her piece in the moving story of a mistakenly tortured nun, and how Hillary was able to help her after hearing her story at a black-tie event. Bobby spoke of environmental reasons and the many damages the current administration has done in that arena. He also shared personal stories of their childhood and was it was like to be glorified for being affiliated with American politics. He quickly followed up with howthe current adminstration has shattered those previous views all across the world in 7 short years. It was truly inspiring listening to a few of what many people consider to be American royalty speak so candidly about politics. We got some great pictures, but more importantly, some pretty large pieces of information to chew on as we hear from the various candidates moving through this exciting (and cold) state.
It has been a wild ride so far with no end in sight for the next few days. We have collected all sorts of literature, t-shirts, buttons, hats, bumper stickers and anything else a candidate is willing to give. But if there is one thing I am sure of, my backpack starting to mirror the way I feel inside--- bursting with Red, White, and Blue!!!

McCain Speech

As I listened to Sen. McCain’s speech, there were some things that really disturbed me and I wanted share this idea. Previously, I really wanted see McCain some point because of his trade mark campaign theme of the straight talk. I really wished that he would be honest with his audience, but like many other politicians, he really disappointed me by not really answering to any questions. At the end of Q&A session, some guy brought up the issue of the war in Iraq and Sen. McCain tried to avoid that question by mentioning the US troops’ presence in Korea and Japan. I honestly don’t know too much thing about history of Japan or history of Iraq although I took some courses in Middle East and East Asian History at Mason. Those classes only reminded me how much I don’t know about Japan or Middle East. However, I grew up and studied Korean history and because of that, what some of things that Sen. McCain said really disturbed me. Sen. McCain mentioned that American troops are staying in Korea and Japan for more than 60 years because it is bloodless and it keeps democracy alive in those countries. That might be good enough response for American public but as a student of Korean history, that really bothered me a lot. First of all, there are combats and battles in almost daily basis within the military border between two Koreas, and good number of American soldiers died even after the cease fire was declared. What makes Korea much different compared to Iraq is that they had a legitimate and strong democratic government even before Truman administration decided to stood up for South Koreans. They were not like South Vietnamese or Iraq, because even before Gen. MacArthur brought US troops into the Korean Peninsula, South Korean troops did relatively well even though North Koreans made a surprise attack without declaration of the war and USSR and China secretly supplied modern military supplies that South Koreans didn’t have. Even if UN troops didn’t support South Koreans, they might be held up for a while. That’s what makes Korean issue much different than Iraqi issue. In Korea, there was a legitimate democratic government that desired a help from the free world to sustain their democratic government. In Iraq, a slight trace of democratic tradition was destroyed by the Hussein’s dictatorship and majority of Iraqis didn’t even thought about the US or any others to set up the democratic government for them, which didn’t even exist before. Democracy in East Asia and democracy in the Middle East is much different. We can’t really take one case and apply it to other case because the previous one was successful. Maybe that’s what the Bush administration failed to see before they decided to declare the war on the terrorism. This hegemonic view of the US foreign policy got to be stop, and I was really disappointed by the fact that a self-declared foreign policy expert like Sen. McCain brought up this century-old biased views of the hegemonic global politics. The Cold War is over and we have to move on. There are more than two sides of the world these days in the global politics, and America should stop applying the one measure to the every part of the world because democracy is all about diversity and people in the different part of the world might have different ideas about democracy.