Go Hill!

"People are not attacking me because I'm a woman, they're attacking me because I'm ahead." *edit* OMG yes do you notice she quoted from Harry Truman, 'if you can't stand the heat then get out of the kitchen...'

PLEASE REFER TO MY POST 2 DAYS AGO. I am like, seriously, PROPHETIC. Or should that be pathetic?

I woke up bright and early this morning (well, not quite bright but early) and instead of studying was distracted by the CNN Democratic Nominee Debates which was broadcasting live. So I decided to do the right thing and caught the debates instead. All 2 plus hours of it.

Frankly, it was my first time actually listening to some of the single digit candidates like Bill Richardson and Joe Biden, and they did make an impression on me (in a good way), but at the end of the day it was still all about Clinton, Obama and Edwards.

The background to this debate, of course, was that Clinton needed to turn in a solid performance after her slip 2 weeks ago at the debates in Philly, where the first chinks in the Clinton machinery showed and which had led the media to question the supposed 'inevitability' surrounding her candidacy.

Obama and Edwards tried to exploit this initially, but this time Hillary dished as good as she got. It was telling when Obama waffled on the issue of driving licenses for illegal immigrants, embarking on a less than concise, convoluted response, when this was the very thing he had accused Clinton of not being able to give a definite answer to at the previous debates, while in stark contrast, her answer was simply 'No'. It was, as one of the analyst on CNN put it, a direct punch to the nose without Obama even knowing it.

On a personal level, I think that the intervention of...was it Bill Richardson...early on, where he stressed the need to debate about the *issues* and not let the session degenerate into personal attacks on character, was the turning point which led Obama and Edwards to realise that they did not have carte blanche to attack Hillary. The other candidates would not stand for it. And I think that does have something to do with the fact that many of them were part of the Clinton Administration. In that sense, Hillary's circumstances helped her today, I think. Although no one else picked up on it so I might be dead wrong.

But I really did enjoy the debate. It is an example of the robustness that is sadly missing in Singapore, and a testament to the quality of the candidates in the Democratic field. Any one of these people could be President. Well, not anyone. I do not care for John Edwards' dangerous populist crusade.

I found it interesting that all the candidates basically said they would only appoint a judge to the Supreme Court who was committed to preserving a woman's right to choose, or to spin it, 'recognises Roe v. Wade as settled law'. Presuming that the next president gets to appoint, say, 2 justices to the Court (and I PRAY TO GOD that Bush doesn't get a THIRD opportunity), it could result in significant changes to the makeup of the Court. I agree completely with Obama when he says that one of the main roles of the court is to protect the rights of minorities who get caught in the political process, which, by its inherent nature, is about the will of the majority.

Anyway, by and large, opinions so far are that Hillary has redeemed herself by turning in a solid performance, and that her rivals were unable to take advantage of the uncharacteristic weakness of her campaign over the past 2 weeks.

Viva la Clinton.

On a very different note, I remember expressing my incredulity when Britney entered the UK charts at #3 with Gimme More in its first week on downloads alone, and the headline screamed how she had failed to top the chart. I recall ranting as to how most acts would die to hit the top 10 on downloads alone, and I'm glad that someone else has recognised this.

I quote from James Masterton, who has a weekly UK charts commentary section.

"All of the above makes the chart positions of the two singles (both released as downloads) this week all the more surprising. It is Kylie who runs out the winner, '2 Hearts' picking up sales after a slow start to land at Number 12. The Spice Girls fare even worse however, their brand new song 'Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)' creeps almost apologetically into view at Number 20. Now admittedly this is just after one week of online sales, but let us face facts here. These are two hugely anticipated new releases from big name acts which have received copious and favourable press attention but which have announced themselves to the world as mid table hits. Compare that with the maligned and dare I say it, sneered at Britney Spears single 'Gimmie More' which shrugged off the bad press to charge into the Top 3 in its own download week. Make all the excuses you want, but something somewhere has misfired for both acts."

Something to think about indeed. Ok I am so dead have to start breaking the chain of procrastination now and get down to some fucking solid work.