In this posting: Palin Wins the Afghan Grasshopper and the Pakistani Widower- A Candidate and Arab Leaders on Steroids- Kissinger As Elder Statesman?

Alaska's Sarah Palin and Iran's Ahmadinejad failed to convert other UN leaders to their respective faiths. In the Iranian's case it is hard to imagine him converting anyone to anything. He even has less charisma and makes less sense than Senator McCain. He is not as shifty-eyed, though (read the next paragraph).
Palin did win over the new president of Pakistan, the moderate state where the omnipotent ISI plays both sides of the War on Terror, straddling the fence between its former Taliban protegies and its neocon paymasters in Washington. Mr. Zardari, recent widower and former jailbird, properly corrupt in the fashion of all elected Pakistani leaders, was clearly impressed by most of her.

She may even have won over the president of metropolitan Kabul in his green grasshopper coat. Mr. Karzai seemed amused by the meeting, but unlike his Pakistani neighbor he did let go of her hand.

Why did McCain look so shifty-eyed at the first debate? He would not look at Obama, never made eye contact with him, even when they shook hands. It was likely a tactic by his advisers with the aim of making Obama look small, unimportant. It only made McCain look odd, with a silly smirk/grin/grimace pasted on his face that made him look like an advanced resident of one of those homes where they turn off the lights at 8 PM.

Someone asked me late last night as we crossed the SR-520: are politicians allowed to take steroids?
There probably are no rules against them doing so- unlike in sports. The only downside for politicians is that it shrinks their gonads (cojones) down to hazelnut size- a terrible price to pay for any man, especially one with a politician's ego (or his girlfriends).
In that case many Arab leaders should take more steroids than Viagra or Cialis or whatever it is they take. That way they can multitask adequately and, more important, equitably, as required by the rules of polygamy, while continuing to run their countries to the ground. It is not only about walking and chewing gum, nor about running a campaign and suddenly appearing to be busy at Capitol Hill.

“So he theatrically suspended his campaign and rushed back to get in the way of a bipartisan solution to the economic turmoil. When the two macho guys of the Republican Party — W. and McCain — took extreme measures not to look emasculated, they ended up emasculating themselves.” M. Dowd, NY Times.

Henry Kissinger helped open up Chinese-American relations in the early 1970s. After that it was downhill for him as a policy adviser and maker. He was wrong on Southeast Asia. He expanded the Vietnam War into Cambodia and Laos, and thus caused the US to lose all three countries instead of just one, and ushered in the era of Khmer Rouge mass genocide. That is what an elder statesman is: someone who is looked at more fondly, or at least with much less disdain, AFTER they leave office.

Watched Bill Clinton talking about Obama and McCain. This man sure holds a grudge. I can see 2012 written all over his face- but then again, 2008 was also written all over his face four years ago. How about 2016? In any case, it is almost obvious that he fervently wishes for McCain to win.

A Cairo appeals court has passed a two month prison sentence on Ibraheem Issa (Abraham Jesus) the chief editor of the opposition newspaper al-Dustour (which ironically means The Constitution). He has been convicted of spreading rumors about the health of President Mubarak, who is nearly 200 years old. I imagine the editor of the National Inquirer would be beheaded in the moderate New Middle East with its neo-democratic leaders.
Cheers
Mohammed