Nobel Peace Prize now in disrepute

I will start off by saying that in principle I am a fan of Barack Obama and that I fervently hope his Presidency will be a force for peace in our troubled world. But like many many other people I was dismayed and shocked to hear that he is the latest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. This is more especially so because of the fact that nominations for this accolade were made as long ago as last February - he was only sworn into office the month before! I mean he could have hardly warmed his chair in the Oval Office by then. I suspect that Obama has high aspirations when it comes to peace but what has he physically achieved in this field? Nothing so far as I can see, and that's no reflection on him. I can't believe that there aren't other worthy contenders for the Prize, people who have been around for a long time, who have doggedly pursued peace in some area of the globe but don't have the very high public profile of Obama.

This business of people getting rewarded like this for something that may have happened in the very short term is something that I feel increasingly annoyed about. I know that it was an entirely different type of award but I ranted before about the England cricket team getting MBEs in 2005 when they beat Australia by the narrowest of margins only for them to be thrashed by the Aussies when they went 'down under'. The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous and absolutely devalues the gaining of an MBE and now it's the same with Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize. What is the matter with the people who decide on who should get what in this awards game?

Forty five years since President Kennedy shot

Where were you 45 years ago today? Or, putting it another way, where were you when you heard about the assassination of President John F Kennedy? It seems to be the accepted wisdom that all of us old enough to remember can recollect where we were when that shattering piece of news became apparent.

In my case I was in a pub in Heavitree, Exeter either playing skittles or, more likely, in support of my colleagues team from my then workplace. The landlord came into the skittle alley to say that Kennedy had been shot, before we had finished he came back to say Kennedy was dead. So yes even after 45 years it is still in the old memory banks.

So much has been written since about this momentous event but we still can't be sure if Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman. I still lean toward a conspiracy theory but will we ever really know after all this time.

My worry now is about whether one or more Americans want to see Obama dead. I just hope that the intelligence and security services over there are up to the job.

Obama wins, dignified concession from McCain

As expected then the new President-Elect in the USA is Barack Obama. I watched the start of the results coming in on my computer but no way was I going to stay up all night! On a previous post I had put forward my main reasons for rooting for Obama: my worry with John McCain was that his health problems might prove terminal whilst in office which would then enable the so so scary Sarah Palin to become President plus the fact that McCain is known to have a very violent temper, an aspect of character not too desirable for the leader of the free world. Having said that he made a very fair and decent concession speech and I certainly warm to him far more than those extreme right wing elements in his party.

It was interesting that the folks in America seemed to be prepared to queue for however long it took to exercise their democratic rights, personally I can't stand queuing and am lucky enough to be able to live a life where that chore is nearly non-existent! When I cast my vote here in the village I reckon I'm in and out of the polling station in 60 seconds!

I don't think it would be right to expect rapid changes after Obama is sworn in in January - I've seen it written that he will have the "inbox from hell", a fine expression. What seems to be particularly good is that we should see America reconnect with the rest of the world but don't expect Obama to be a soft touch. That wiry frame conceals a very strong personality methinks.

Why we need Obama not McCain

The world seems to have been particularly fascinated with the unfolding of the Presidential race in the USA this year and I'm no exception. The first thing to say is that whoever wins it will not be a Bush or a Clinton, thank goodness for that at least. I'm no expert on American politics and can't claim to fully understand the policies of Barack Obama and John McCain but there are two very very powerful reasons why I hope that Obama wins:

• McCain is old and not in the best of health and there is real concern that he might not live through one let alone two presidencies. If he were to die in office then Sarah Palin would become President, that really would be scary.
• McCain can be very charming but his Achilles heel is his violent temper. A great strength of Obama is that he has shown himself to be totally calm and in control of himself. He also I think is prepared to take soundings from his advisers and act with good sense in a crisis. I'm old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis when President Kennedy faced down Kruschev and the Russians. Hopefully we will never see anything like that again but it would be good to know that there was someone in The White House who would take a measured decision if the necessity arose.

So there we have it: it is definitely Obama for me. Now he has received support from Colin Powell his position looks even more impregnable. Obama's main concern now must be whether his country still has racist undertones. I think and hope that America has moved on enough for that not to be a major factor in the voting. In just over two weeks we will all know the answer.

Obama gets nomination for Democrats

Well, it all seems to be over now - the long drawn out tussle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to get the nomination to be the contender for the Democrats in the US election in November. Thank goodness it's Obama not Clinton who has come through. Now Obama has the interesting problem of whether or not to make Clinton his vice presidential running mate - something she would relish I think.

From now on in it's Obama and McCain to fight over the ultimate prize. What is particularly interesting from a UK perspective is how our foreign policy could see a significant shift depending on which of these two becomes President. Nowhere is this more self evident than in the resolution of problems in the Middle East, particularly Iraq. We have McCain for instance quite happy for western forces to remain in that troubled country for decades to come whereas Obama can't wait to get out of there. It would surely be unthinkable for the UK to maintain a presence there if Obama won and pulled the American troops. And Obama one would imagine would be less likely to go on a military expedition in the first place.

What happens on the other side of the pond in a few months time could prove to be a truly pivotal moment in modern history.