HEY, WHAT DO YOU KNOW - TWO POLITICOS BEING HONEST!

Conversation between President Sarkozy and President Obama.
Sarkozy says of Israeli Premier Netanyahu: I cannot stand him. He's a liar.
Obama responds: You're fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day.

Press, radio, Tv report the conversation as a gaffe.

My question: Why is a truthful interchange a gaffe?

SENATOR OBAMA IS ELITIST

HARRISONBURG: APRIL 7
Wind and rain batter Harrisonburg, Virginia. I watch Primary Election coverage on TV. Both Senators Clinton and McCain attack Senator Obama for describing working class men of the Pennsylvania Valleys as bitter. According to Senator Obama the cause of their bitterness is the closure of the mills and mines in the Pennsylvania valleys. The men have lost their jobs. However, bitter is an insult, it is un-American. Describing the unemployed as bitter proves Senator Obama an elitist (according to Senators Clinton and McCain).
I am an outsider.
What would I know?

PROUD TO BE AMERICAN

GALVESTON, TEXAS: MARCH 18/24
For the past week and more, TV channels here have been broadcasting a twenty second loop of Reverend Wright bouncing up and down in apparently insensate rage at the wickedness of the United States. The Reverend Wright was Barak Obama's priest/Minister. Barak Obama made a speech yesterday. I lay in bed in the studio apartment at Ed and Terry's and watched on TV. Obama addressed the most divisive aspect of the United States: Race.
Race is dangerous ground. Politicians avoid the subject. Obama wasn't speaking as a politician. He was asking people to confront the truth and think outside the proscribed box. The speech was the finest and most relevant I have heard uttered by an American. Much of what has happened recently in US Government must shame Americans. Obama should make them proud.

BOUNCING PASTOR

EDINBURG, TEXAS: MARCH 15/16
I write much of the day in my motel room. Edinburgh is a good place to write. The alternative is visiting a couple of Malls (no great temptation). Between writing I watch TV news. FOX and CNN are delirious with joy. They have grabbed an opportunity to destroy Senator Barak Obama. Obama's pastor is the weapon. FOX and CNN broadcast endless repeats off the pastor bouncing up and down while fueled with rage at the suffering of Afro Americans. “God damn America,” the pastor yells.
God has saved MacCaine, breathe Republicans.
God be blessed for passionate Afro American Christianity, breathes Hillary Clinton.

ONE FOR HAMISH - AND HILARY SUPPORTERS

QUERETARO, MEXICO: MARCH 5
At home, we have a Border terrier, Hamish. My wife, Bernadette, is in New York for a week. Hamish is looking after our youngest son. This photograph is for Hamish - and a comment on those who voted for Hilary Clinton in last night's Primary.

GOOD GIRLS DON'T SPEAK

QUERETARO. MEXICO: MARCH 4
A Municipal art gallery down the walking street from the Jardin de Armas is a magnificent modern space within ancient walls. I find an exhibition of communication in art on the left-hand of two mezzanines.
A young professor discusses communication with his students. He stands in front of eight small, unframed, oil paintings. The paintings hang in a horizontal line on a large white wall and are equidistant one from the other. The paintings could be arranged as a narrative: sea monster, sinking ship, telephone, satellite dish...
The painter has arranged them haphazardly - perhaps because that is the manner in which we are offered information on the web.
Haphazard offends one of the two male students.
The female students don't speak.
The professor is accustomed to their silence.
The female students are accustomed to communicating by cellular.
I apologize for intruding and offer my banal suggestion.
They seem bemused.
Silence is natural.
They have been silent throughout their education.
Sad that they haven't learned to speak.

OBAMA HAS THE LATIN AMERICAN VOTE

QUERETARO, MEXICO: MARCH 4
I sit on a bench in the Jardin del Armas this morning and listen with joy to a throaty Mexican Blues vocalist (female) accompanied by two guitars (male). A family shares the bench: two small children, mum and dad. Dad is a tall thin schoolteacher wanting to be a writer. Mum is a plump mum. Kids are well behaved. The teacher and I talk US politics. He is pro Obama. All his friends are pro Obama. Obama would be proof that the US can change.
Every Latin American with whom I have talked during the US Primaries has been a supporter of Obama.
CNN reports that the US Latino vote is pro Hilary Clinton.

CNN ANTI OBAMA

QUERETARO, MEXICO: MARCH 3
I have a routine. I walk in the morning for an hour. Queretaro is great for walking. People are courteous and sidewalks are seldom crowded. My new laptop weighs little more than a book. It fits the hand well and is comfortable to carry. I find a coffeehouse in the cloister facing the Jardin de Armas and work three hours. I return to the hotel, connect through WiFi, post the new entries and leave the laptop on charge. I walk a further hour, visiting museums, galleries, sneaking into patios, doing my death trip in a church or two. I have found an oyster bar facing across Calle Corregidora to the gardens. I order the US$6 set menu: prawn cocktail, a red snapper off the grill and a flan. I write notes while eating, collect the laptop and finish off the battery a second time over coffee back in the cloister. Returning to my room, I post and watch the US Presidential Primaries on CNN. Why CNN? CNN is the only channel available on the hotel's satellite package. How is CNN reportage of the Primaries? A crafty assassination job on Barak Obama...