Barack Obama’s dramatic/impressive recent victories have generated a pro-Obama hysteria in the media and the blogosphere. To an outsider, it may appear that Hillary Clinton is now lagging far behind and may not make it to the White House. However, in an extremely well written article Gerard Baker, the United States Editor and an Assistant Editor of The Times of London, argues that “Hillary Clinton can still save her bacon”.
Next two weeks, he says, would be very crucial for Clinton…Only, if she can somehow transform her message. “It began a year ago with the insistence on her invincibility, as though she did not need to earn the nomination but was owed it by a grateful party…And she made the catastrophic mistake of letting her husband run riot…”
If sagacious self-confidence turned into insufficiency of humility in the case of Hillary Clinton, the same story seems to be repeating in the case of Barack Obama. “Hubris, the ineradicable flaw that helps humans to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory, has played merry havoc with this eventful US presidential primary season.”
Baker explains: “On Wednesday, David Plouffe, Mr Obama’s campaign manager, told reporters it was now ‘next to impossible’ for Mrs Clinton to finish the primary campaign with more elected delegates to the party’s nominating convention than Mr Obama, proof of his campaign’s burgeoning self-confidence…The message, therefore, implicit in Mr Plouffe’s observation is: It’s over, we’ve won.
“…But with more than a third of all the elected delegates – more than 1,000 – still to be chosen in the remaining states to vote, and with Mr Obama clinging to a current lead among that category of delegate of a little more than 100, it could certainly count as premature…”
To read the full article please click here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.