The U.S. Presidential Debates are underway

Last Wednesday evening, we had a very elegant dinner prepared by Master Chef Gene Gonzalez and his team, including his son Chef Gino to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Café Ysabel, hosted by Marco Polo General Manager Hans & Bo Hauri. It was a rare feast that Chef Gene prepared, where my seatmate, Dr. Nestor Alonzo II, The Freeman’s Food critic, told me that the food served matched the wine… from the start to the end. Call it a rare treat indeed. Thanks to the Marco Polo Hotel service, it was a perfect dinner!

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I’m doing this column while the TV is tuned to CNN for the 1st US Presidential debates between US Pres. Barrack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney at the University of Denver, Colorado and the first issue that they tackled in these debates is about the US economy. This is what makes American democracy so great… debates that bring out the best of each presidential contender. This is something our politicians still have to learn and do here.

From the way the first debate went both Pres. Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney were about even, with Gov. Romney getting those badly needed points where he wanted the American people to know him better. Romney showed that he was very knowledgeable about the problems of America. This was the assessment of Britt Hume who offered an objective view of that debate. CNN says Romney did a good job in that debate. This validates what the US surveys reveal, both Obama and Romney are neck-to-neck, with Pres. Obama having a slight lead. Perhaps Gov. Romney has now narrowed that small gap.

This also tells you that there’s a huge change in America today. In the early 90s, during the reelection campaign of US Pres. George Walker Bush against Bill Clinton, Bush pointed out that under his leadership, he won America’s greatest military victory since their humiliating defeat in Vietnam when they won the invasion of Iraq in Desert Storm. One would have thought that Pres. Bush would have handily won his reelection bid with that stunning victory. But all challenger Pres. Bill Clinton did was to say, “Read my lips… it’s the economy!” Pres. Bush lost to Pres. Clinton.

But today, many Americans are still rooting for Pres. Obama despite having a bad economy in the last three years and high unemployed workers. Just imagine some 23 million Americans are out of work… yet many of them still believe in Pres. Obama whose economic policies have failed the American people in his three years in office. Alas many Americans who still have jobs would rather support Pres. Obama and let those unemployed fend for themselves. Sounds similar to the Philippines?

Meanwhile, some months back I already warned my friends that just before the US elections come in November, the conflagration in the Middle East, notably the civil war now raging in Syria would escalate. Well, just as the Presidential debates began, breaking news came out of CNN that Syria fired artillery shells inside Turkey and in response for that unprovoked attack by the Syrians, Turkey responded in kind, shelling targets inside Syria.

The difference in this conflict is that Turkey is allied with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and that means any attack against Turkey is considered an attack against NATO. Therefore America is now free to help Turkey retaliate militarily against Syria. This is a new opening for America and if things escalate any further, I’m sure that Pres. Barrack Obama would gladly send military aid to Turkey against Syria. This means, Russia, which helps Syria get military supplies, could join the fray and we might just be headed towards Armageddon. We will be watching this events unfolding, more so that NATO has now called for an emergency meeting about this attack.

Meanwhile in Iran, massive demonstrations are on going because the value of Iranian currency has gone down by as much as 40 percent perhaps due to the sanctions slapped by the western nations and Iran’s helping the beleaguered Syrian government. This should be a grave concern for world peace.

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In a brilliant political move, the Alayon Party of 1st District Rep. Eduardo “EddieGul” Gullas finalized its decision to support Rep. Pablo John Garcia of the One Cebu Party and Agnes Magpale of the Liberal Party as vice-governor of Cebu for the 2013 elections. I’m sure that many pundits would call this a “Solomonic” decision on the part of Rep. EddieGul. But what I would like to know is the reaction of Rep. Tomas Osmeña on this “split” decision? Will Rep. Tomas Osmeña take back the P400 million in infrastructure projects that he moved from Cebu City into the 1st District? Let us see what Rep. Tomas Osmeña would do in response to the Alayon decision. Whatever it is… it would be worth writing about.

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