If there’s anything going on in the world besides Super Tuesday, it’s hard to discern it in the media, whether U.S. or foreign based. We cannot recollect such intense excitement over primaries and admit to obsessing about the latest pronouncement from Wolf, Brian, Charlie (Gibson or Rose), Tim, not to mention all those wonderful political blogs, about which Kennedy/celebrity has endorsed whom and what this all means. Then there are the analyses from the BBC, the Economist, the Independent, The Guardian — even Al Jazeera carries a story on California voters’ preoccupation with the environment, accompanied by a side bar reminding readers that:

A total of 24 US states are holding primaries or caucuses on 5 Feb MSNbc live TV

It is the day when the largest number of nominating delegates for both Republicans and Democrats are up for grabs

52 per cent of Democratic delegates and 41 per cent of Republican delegates are at stake.

For your reading pleasure there is much more at: U.S. Primaries: Super Tuesday and U.S. Presidential Campaign: views and reviews

There was, of course, the Super Bowl, which was even a topic for the political junkies who debated whether the Giants’ upset victory was a portend of the New York Senator’s success at the polls? With whom were the respective candidates viewing the game? Did Bill Clinton try to get Bill Richardson’s endorsement during the game? Far less entertaining is the prospect of the record $3.1 trillion Bush budget proposed on Monday, which would produce huge federal deficits, along with politically wrenching curbs on Medicare and eliminate scores of popular domestic programs. Fortunately, ” Bush’s lame-duck budget plan is likely to be ignored by Congress, which is controlled by Democrats and already looking ahead to November elections. His long-term projections are mostly academic since he’s leaving office next January.”

On the international scene, events in Kenya (and of course, there’s an Obama link) have remained among the top stories every day. Tonight there appears to be some glimmer of hope with the announcement that a framework for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission to help end the crisis was agreed on Friday Unfortunately this good news comes just as rebels mounted a major assault on Ndjamena, the capital of Chad . This conflict is also based on tribal issues and could have severe effects on the situation in neighboring Darfur.

OTTAWA, N'DJAMENA, UN: GOVT. DENOUNCES CHAD VIOLENCE
The Canadian government has condamned rebel attacks in Chad, particularly in the capital, N'Dajema. Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier says he shares the concern about the situation expressed by the new president of the African Union, Jakaya Kikwete, who has expressed his worry about the rebel effort to overthrow the Chadian government militarily. The minister also called for an immediate end to the violence and the resumption of peace talks. Mr. Bernier also demands that both sides take steps to protect civilians and to enable aid workers complete access to those in need of aid. Meanwhile, the streets of N'Djamena were littered with dead bodies after a weekend of heavy fighting and tens of thousands of the city's residents have fled. The Chadian government says its troops have succeeded in expelling the insurgents from the capital but the rebels said they had made a strategic withdrawal and that their revolt against President Idress Deby was far from over. At the UN, the Security Council has passed a non-binding statement condemning the rebels and calling on the world to back Mr. Deby's government.

For a brief moment, we glimpsed a few items on the presidential vote in Serbia and what it will mean for the independence of Kosovo. This should be of particular interest to Wednesday Nighters as we are fast approaching the time for Misha Crnobrnja’s annual visit - it could even be this week. Sadly, there will not be an opportunity for a repeat of last year’s Tom & Misha Show and on this Site

The situation in Afghanistan  is increasingly bleak and it does not appear that NATO will come to reinforce the Canadians, British and other allies. see also for more on this site

News of China is not good. The crippling and unusual snow storms have wreaked havoc on the eve of Chinese New Year. Millions remained stranded on Monday ahead of the biggest holiday of the year as parts of the country suffered their coldest winter in a century. Freezing weather has killed scores of people and left travellers stranded before the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival — the only opportunity many people have to take a holiday all year.

While the Economist reports that
Efforts to cool the economy may undo crucial reforms also our Economic report on this site

Faced with rising consumer prices and signs of runaway growth, the Chinese Communist Party in November issued a strongly worded statement vowing to stem inflation and slow investment. At the time market players paid scant attention to it. But as the State Council’s increasingly stringent policies show no signs of letting up even in the face of global financial turmoil, players in China’s property and equity markets are at last waking up to the harsher reality. In recent weeks both housing and stock prices have started to retreat from their irrationally exuberant highs. Chinese policymakers, however, should be careful of what they wish for. Falling asset prices could bring back an old problem that many thought had been conquered: bad debts in the banking system. Meanwhile, inflation is reviving throwback elements of state economic planning.There’s lots more and it’s gloomy.

Alberta

In the Canadian media, only election news out of Alberta  ranks slightly higher than Super Tuesday - and that won’t last more than a few hours. Meantime, Canada has its very own [Bill] Clinton connection in the story that broke in the New York Times last week: An Ex-President, a Mining Deal and a Big Donor “A Canadian financier who traveled to Kazakhstan with Bill Clinton and won a big mining deal later donated millions to Mr. Clinton’s charitable foundation.” There’s more and it’s not pretty.

The AECL-Chalk River story isn’t going away  [w-n] But still, the National Post featured what a Ron Paul (yes, he’s still around) victory in Alaska might mean. And the Financial Post trumpets [Bank of Canada] Carney’s first weeks a snap  Last, but by no means least, The Ottawa Journal reports : “Four of Canada’s largest banks have agreed to support the restructuring of $35-billion-worth of asset-backed commercial paper, working with the Pan-Canadian Investors Committee on the plan.

The Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Nova Scotia said they will join National Bank as lenders in a $14-billion margin call funding facility which will serve as a backup line of credit for the bonds that will replace the frozen non-bank ABCP.”

A propos this story, we would like to call your attention to Ron Meisels‘ prescient remark of almost a year ago (Feb 21 2007): “Since 1887, years ending in seven have always had a bad ending starting sometime in August and ending sometime in October, including 1907 - sometimes referred to as the Crash of 07 - and 1987?. Caveat fundamental-ists.

So, do join us for Super Wednesday, prepared to dissect all possible outcomes in the 22 - 24 (the count varies) primaries/caucuses, along with a selection of the other topics above. We look forward to your wisdom.

Super Bowl XLII was the most-watched Super Bowl ever, with 97.5 million U.S. viewers, a total that is second only to the “M-A-S-H” finale audience

There was more reason to cheer for the New York Giants on Sunday night than you think. According to the Super Bowl Indicator, a win for a team from the old AFL (AFC division) foretells a decline in the stock market for the coming year, while a win from a team from the old NFL (NFC division) means the stock market will be up for the year.
The Super Bowl Indicator has been right on the direction of the Dow in 33 of 41 Super Bowls, which is an 81% success rate.

bbc Bush presents $3 trillion budget
President George W Bush urges Congress to pass his budget to boost the economy and keep the US safe.

Wednesday 06 February 2008 Much has been made of Barack Obama's speech-making capabilities in the last couple of weeks, and Hillary Clinton has even been accused by some people of cribbing some of his phrases. But is it is possible that Obama himself borrowed one of his signature lines, from a most unlikely source? "I tuned out the NH debate the other night to watch Man of the Year, in which Robin Williams plays a comedian who gets 'elected' President," one reader commented on John Heilmann's piece about Obama in last week's New York. One of Williams's speeches in the film, he noticed, was strikingly similar to one Obama gave in an ad in Iowa: "We are not a nation of red states or of blue states; we are the United States of America." So we got a copy of both speeches, played them one after the other, and, well, what do you know? Now, we're not accusing anyone of plagiarism: Like "I'm a uniter, not a divider" before it, it's a pretty facile construction, one that could have easily just, you know, seeped in. But on the off chance that Obama's aides are turning to Hollywood for inspiration, we highly recommend studying Martin Sheen in The West Wing. Or Michael Douglas in The American President. Now that's a man who would sweep the primaries. [Thanks Diana N]

Editor

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Diana & David Nicholson
dtnicholson@wednesdaynight.net
Tel: +1 (514) 934-0023

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