American Election Graffiti

Washington DC : The worldacirc;euro;trade;s -- greatest democracy -- is learning a few things from the worldacirc;euro;trade;s -- la...

Washington DC : The worldacirc;euro;trade;s 8212; greatest democracy 8212; is learning a few things from the worldacirc;euro;trade;s 8212; largest democracy. 8212; In the glorious tradition of the sub-continentacirc;euro;trade;s political widows rooting for their dead husbandacirc;euro;trade;s seat, the widow of Missouriacirc;euro;trade;s Democratic Governor Mel Carnahan has announced that will take his Senate seat if the voters want her to. 8220;I decided to do what I think Mel would want all of us to do, to keep the cause alive,acirc;euro;trade;acirc;euro;trade; Jean Carnahan, 66, told a news conference at her family farm, about a fortnight after her husband and son died in a plane crash. Mel Carnahan was contesting for the Senate against the Republican incumbent John Ashcroft. Unlike in India, where the election is countermandedor scrapped in the event of the death of a candidate, the wheels of campaigning grind on in the U.S. Carnahanacirc;euro;trade;s name remains on the ballot, and accordingto the latest Reuters/MSNBC poll, the late governor is ahead of Ashcroft 50-43 percent. US laws also allow widows to succeed their husbands in Congress. Muriel Humphrey was appointed in 1978 to serve the remaining term of her husband, the late Minnesota Democratic Sen. Hubert Humphrey. The current House of Representatives has three widows who succeeded their late husbands 8212; Mary Bono, a California Republican; Lois Capps, a California Democrat; and Jo Ann Emerson, a Missouri Republican. Not that dynastic succession isunknown in the U.S. Both the Presidential candidates are sons of illustrious US politicians.

The growing electoral clout of Indian-Americans, particularly on the West Coast, has attracted the attention of the weighty Los Angeles Times, now a big media powerhouse following its alliance with the Chicago Tribune. The paper ran a lengthy story on Monday detailing the fund-raising activity of West Coast desis acirc;euro;ldquo; techies and others acirc;euro;ldquo; for the Gore campaign. The paper said Indian Americans areacirc;euro;brvbar; more forthcoming than East Asians, who tend to be reticent, a trait subject to misinterpretation in American culture, which emphasizes verbal ommunication. Unlike many East Asian political contributors who shy away fromthe news media, quot;Indian Americans are at ease with reporters and seem to relish encounters with them.quot;

The paper reported that one of the most politically active Indo-Americans is essie Singh, a 42-year-old agricultural engineer, who immigrated to America in1986 from his native Punjab with only 20 in his pocket. He went on to build BJS Electronics Inc. In Milpitas into a software empire that does 150 million in annual sales worldwide. In April, Singh hosted a 1,000-per-person luncheon for Vice President Al Gore at his home that netted 100,000. Last month, Clinton attended another fund-raiser that Singh hosted8211;this one for congressional candidate Mike Honda of San Josethat raised nearly 400,000, the paper reported.

California is also state where Indian Sikhs first began arriving in significant numbers at the turn of the century as farm workers. The state gave the USCongress its first acirc;euro;ldquo; and to date, only acirc;euro;ldquo; Indian Congressman. Starting 1956, Dalip Singh Saund, a mathematician with a PhD who went into farming becausehe could not find a university that would hire an Asian instructor, was elected three terms to the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, Bill Clinton has finally rolled up his sleeves and jumped into the campaign mud-pit whether or not Al Gore and his camp want him or not. ThePresident hit te trail on Sunday appealing to his favourite constituency acirc;euro;ldquo; the Blacks. The Blacks too regard Clinton as one of their own, and in fact, African-Americans see him as the first Black president in the White House acirc;euro;ldquo; so strong is the mutual affinity.

Itacirc;euro;trade;s a well-known fact that some 90 per cent of all Black voters in the country are Democratic. But the problem is getting them out to the voting booth and on Sunday Clinton was out on the bully pulpit exhorting them not to waste their vote.

Elsewhere, the favorite Republican constituency was also being rallied by the GOP faithfuls. Studies show that 64 per cent of all American armed forces officers describe themselves as Republican, compared to just 8 per cent Democrat. The US armed forces is 1.4 million strong, and this close election, it is quite a sizeable chunk of vote. The reason for the Republican inclination on part of the men in uniform is not hard to seek: They like the Republican pledge to rebuild the military.quot; Many of them believe President Clinton has sent them on too many overseas missions while cutting the budget. They are also leery of Democrat Al Gore8217;s promise to open the ranks to avowed homosexuals, and the fact that he served in Vietnam while George W ducked it doesnacirc;euro;trade;t seem to matter.