Color of Obama’s Skin May be in Favor of Him

Color of Obama’s Skin May be in Favor of Him
Azerbaijan, Baku, 28 October /corr. Trend News V.Zhavoronkova / The color of the skin of Presidential candidate from the Democratic Party, Barack Obama, not only will not affect the results of presidential elections in the USA, but also even it can draw voters to his side, experts said.

“There are, however, many people for whom his race is an asset, given that his election could go a long way to heal the racial scars of America's history,” Jack Glaser, American politician told TrendNews via e-mail.

According to the last surveys, Presidential candidate of the USA from the Democratic Party, Barack Obama, continues to lead due to the drop in the rating of his rival, Republican John McCain. For example, according to the survey by CBS News together with New York Times, Obama has the superiority of 13%.

At the meeting, which took place in the end of the last week in Denver, the State of Colorado, Obama brought together large number of his supporters during entire history of the pre-election campaign, Vesti reported. According to the different estimations, the meeting was attended by nearly 45-50,000 people.

With regards to the rival of Democrat, Republican John McCain, the meeting in his support took place with the substantially smaller participation of public. Only 2,000 people came to listen to McCain in Ayov, and in Ohio - no more than 5,000.

American experts concur in the opinion that the number of voters, who will not vote for Obama due to the color of his skin, will be less than the number of those, who will give preference to him.

The factor, which can prevent Obama, can become Bradley's effect, which manifests with the rivalry of the two candidates, one of whom is dark-skinned. Significant part of voters hides their position, giving their voice to the dark-skinned candidate during surveys, but fearing the direct accusations of racism, in the polling booth, the white voters will vote for the white candidate. In the history of the USA there were two cases, when with the serious leading according to the data of survey, the black candidates lost during the voting.

In 1982 African American Tom Bradley lost the elections to the governor of California, white rival, despite the fact that he led with the superiority of 7%. And in 1989 elections, the governor of Virginia, black candidate Douglas Vilder won the post with the superiority in of half a percent, although he led in the survey with the superiority of 9%.

A number of polls show up to 6 points disadvantage due to Obama's race, Charles Henry, American expert on the African-American searches at California University, said.

Many Americans are probably supporting Senator Obama in part because it will be transformative to have a President who is African-American, and people want to be a part of history, Peter Shane, American expert on elections, said.

“That historic signal of change that is probably helping to turn out unprecedented number of young and minority voters, which will surely be a big part of the story if Senator Obama wins,” Shane, search fellow of University of Ohio State, told TrendNews via e-mail.

There will be some voters who choose McCain, in part, because they could not support a black President, Shane said.

“Given the political landscape in America -- with the unpopular war, the unpopular Republican president, the economic crisis that Republican philosophies are seen as ill-equipped to fix, if not the actual cause, and Obama's eloquence and political giftedness -- if he does lose, one would have to consider that race played a role,” Glaser said.

Many experts consider that the color of the skin here generally is not reason, and for the candidate from the Republicans already practically it is not possible to outdistance rival in the pre-election race.

“I don't think anything can prevent Obama from winning. There is simply no scenario I see that stops him. And no, his race does not hurt him. In fact, I expect a large turnout of black voters who will go overwhelmingly for Obama,” American expert on elections, John McAdams, told TrendNews via e-mail.

Any last-minute "stunt" by the McCain campaign will now be perceived as an act of desperation, not of strength, Shane said. Only an event such as a terrorist attack could swing the public in McCain's direction, Henry said.

The majority of the public sides with Obama on most of the major issues, Glaser said.

So McCain's campaign has to try other angles, but they undermined one of their strongest arguments (that Obama doesn't have enough experience) by selecting Sarah Palin (who has even less, and seems to have learned much less from those limited experiences) as the vice presidential nominee, Glaser said.

So they are stuck trying to make a lot out of small things, he added.

Hollywood’s REAL eco-celebrities

A lot of stars claim to be green…but these guys and gals are the real deal The 90210 zip code may still be home to the massive mansions we first caught glimpses of on The Beverly Hillbillies,

but these days the Clampetts are converting their estates to green, and not the kind you roll in. It seems the Beverly Hills City Council is borrowing a page from the eco-friendly handbook by offering incentives for home owners to build or remodel in an energy-efficient manner.

The famed city also recently passed a Green Building ordinance mandating environmentally friendly requirements for commercial and multifamily developments. We can only hope that speculator Donald Trump is mindful of these eco initiatives since lately he's been snapping up several acres of properties around the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom

Happily, there are many Hollywood types we can count on to pave the way toward eco-conscious abodes. Take Johnny Depp - in 2005, the star converted his Bahamas island home to run on solar hydrogen technology. Depp's eco enlightenment may have rubbed off on his Pirates of the Caribbean costar Orlando Bloom. Last year Bloom built an enviro-friendly house in London."It's as green as I can make it," Bloom said on the green design Web site Inhabitat."It's got solar panels on the roof, energy-efficient light bulbs - newer technology basically that is environmentally friendly."

Ed Begley, Jr., Jackson Browne and Katey Sagal

Then there are stars that take it to the max, like musician and longtime activist Jackson Browne. His Malibu ranch home is completely off the grid, and is far from running on empty. The airy barn-style house has two loft bedrooms, two guest bedrooms, skylights and tons of windows."It's made out of masonry and rebar in a way that it stays cool all year round," Browne's live-in girlfriend, Dianna Cohen, told Living with Ed, a Planet Green series starring Ed Begley Jr.

Browne's dwelling is powered by wind turbines and solar panels; a solar-weather measuring station sits atop the property, and a well provides water."I regard this place as sort of an ongoing experiment," Browne said."I think if you set out to do it all at once, it might seem like a huge expense, but we've done it a little bit at a time." Maybe Browne can share his expertise with Dennis Haysbert (24, The Unit), who is reportedly building his own off-the-grid Malibu digs.

Phil Rosenthal

Everybody Loves Raymond producer Phil Rosenthal( pictures above) may not be off the grid, but his house is eco-friendly cool, replete with recycled cork floors, denim insulation and a waterless urinal. Rosenthal and his actress wife, Monica (she played Brad Garrett's wife on Raymond), even recycled the show's set furniture - Frank and Marie's kitchen table sits in their guesthouse.

Larry"J.R. Ewing" Hagman says he played the meanest oilman in the world, but in real life, he is an energy-efficient cowboy, even in his magnificent 25,000-square-foot residence. How? Hagman's home sports more solar panels than probably any other single residence. He also has retractable skylights, negating the need for air-conditioning, and claims his annual energy bill totals $13. Altruistically, Hagman's system goes beyond his own needs; he supplies solar power to five nearby lower-income homes.

Rachel McAdams

Actress Rachel McAdams, currently on the big screen in The Lucky Ones opposite Tim Robbins, tells People she is planning a green remodel on her newly purchased house. She might want to hit up Entourage star Adrian Grenier for tips - the posse king hosts another show, Alter Eco, on Planet Green, where he and a team perform enviro-makeovers on a surf shop, skate park, art gallery and other hip spaces.

Or McAdams can check out PETA activist Alicia Silverstone's home."Everything we've brought into this house is environmentally sound," the actress told InStyle.com. But few can rival Jackson Browne's ex, actress Daryl Hannah, whose Rocky Mountain, Colorado, home is a restored stagecoach stop that operates entirely off the grid. Hannah is so hard-core green, her couch is made of mossy stone that she actually waters to keep alive.

Celebrity home designer and Holmes on Homes TV personality Mike Holmes is another go-to green tip guy. The home renovation advocate is planning to build sustainable houses in a Canadian community with features like living roofs, gray-water recapture systems, solar-assist hot water and radiant floor heating.

"I want a home that will not burn down, will not blow down, will not fall down under any circumstances, and it's really not that hard," the outspoken Holmes told ecorazzi.com."We've had, for years, the possibility of building like this. I'm just stunned that we haven't moved on it."

President Bill Clinton and actor Brad Pitt, founder of the Make It Right Foundation, pose with DeeCarla Rogers while they break ground for new homes in the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans.

Brad Pitt has moved on it, with Holmes as part of the team, in New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward, which was devastated by the levee breaks in 2005's Hurricane Katrina. Pitt's goal is to build 150 homes, all designed to prevent future catastrophe by being raised three feet above ground. Besides solar panels and other enviro-friendly features, the homes will capture rainwater to reuse for gardening and toilets. Pitt's Make It Right project is being touted as the future model for our cities.

Nice to know that Hollywood has come a long way from Granny, Jed and Company and is consciously making a difference.

Famous (and Infamous) Celebrity Firings

Canned. Let go. Downsized. Dismissed. Terminated. No matter how you put it, it all means the same thing: You've been fired.

So what? So has everyone. In fact, the average employee has a one-in-three chance of getting fired, according to BusinessWeek.

In our current economy, getting the boot is more common than ever before. Just look at our financial industry: Thanks to bad loans, risky investments and dwindling stocks, the heads of five major banks including Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and American International Group were all recently relieved of their duties.

But getting fired isn't all bad (depending on who you ask). Many say it builds character, inspires you to do better and, if nothing else, makes a good story to tell your friends.

In fact, getting fired and talking about it seems to be the new trend. Workers are no longer getting the boot and feeling bad about it. Now, they are sharing their stories with anyone who will listen. Annabelle Gurwitch, actress and author of "Fired! Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized and Dismissed," discovered this fact when she was fired by her idol, Woody Allen.

"As it turned out, nothing bored my five-year-old son more than an account of being fired by a cultural icon; however, the response from others was quite different," Gurwitch says in her book. "Friends in the industry assured me that they too had been fired and proceeded to relate their stories. Their humor and insight and generosity consoled me. So I began collecting these tales of jobs gone bad."

Think your termination tale was awful? Read the following famous (and not-so-famous) firings from workers, job seekers and celebrity icons around the world. Some will make you laugh; others will inspire and motivate you to do better. After all, Gurwitch says, "It's not the bounce that counts, it's the bounce back."

Famous firee: Britney Spears

Fired from: The Firm, her former management company

Gist: After a tumultuous year, Spears hired The Firm, a talent management company, to help promote her new album. In September 2007 (one month later and during an intense custody battle with her ex-husband), the company suspended its services. In a statement to the media, the company said: "We have terminated our professional relationship with Britney Spears. We believe she is enormously talented, but current circumstances have prevented us from properly doing our job."

Famous firee: Isaiah Washington

Fired from: Television show "Grey's Anatomy"

Gist: In 2006, Washington was accused of using an anti-gay slur to describe fellow actor T.R. Knight during an argument on the set of the show. He repeated the slur at the 64^th annual Golden Globe Awards while denying the allegations during a backstage press conference. ABC Studios didn't invite Washington back to the show because of the bad press generated for the show after the incident, as well as his behavior on and off the set.

Famous firee: Chef Robert Irvine

Fired from: The Food Network

Gist: Irvine, a celebrity chef, prepared difficult dishes on TV for four seasons on his series, "Dinner: Impossible." His contract with the Food Network was terminated earlier this year after the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times revealed that Irvine had embellished and fabricated the more impressive parts of his résumé, including claiming to have cooked for the British royal family; catering to four U.S. presidents; and helping to make Prince Charles and Princess Diana's wedding cake.

Famous firee: Marty Schottenheimer, San Diego Chargers ex-head coach

Fired from: San Diego Chargers

Gist: Schottenheimer was fired in 2007 by the team president, who cited a "dysfunctional situation" between the coach and general manager. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that although Schottenheimer was coming off a winning season, he was fired after he tried to interview his brother for a vacant defensive coordinator position. The president said disagreements over future staffing played a role but it was "more the actual working relationship" that was an issue.

Famous firee: Janet Cooke, former journalist

Fired from: The Washington Post

Gist: Cooke became famous for a Pulitzer Prize-winning profile in 1980 about an 8-year-old heroin addict named "Jimmy." Upon publication, the government demanded to know Jimmy's whereabouts so it could help him. Cooke claimed she couldn't reveal her sources for fear that drug dealers would endanger her life. Several people noticed numerous discrepancies in her story; further investigation revealed Cooke's false credentials. Two days after the prize had been awarded it was revealed that the story was fraudulent. Cooke was forced to resign and return the prize.

Famous firees: Four women in Hooksett, N.H.
Fired from: The Town Council of Hooksett

Gist: Four women were fired in May 2007 for gossiping and discussing rumors about an illicit relationship between the town administrator and another employee. After the administrator complained, the council fired the women, saying, "Gossip, whispering and an unfriendly environment are causing poor morale and interfering with the efficient performance of town business."

Famous firee: Don Imus, radio announcer

Fired from: CBS Radio

Gist: During a discussion on his show, "Imus in the Morning," about the 2007 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship, Imus used a slur to refer to the Rutgers University women's basketball team and called them "rough girls." Imus accepted his fate when his show was canceled in April 2007 and apologized for his actions. His show resumed eight months later, on ABC Radio.

Famous firees: Larry Mendte and Alycia Lane, former TV newscasters

Fired from: KYW-TV, a CBS affiliate in Philadelphia

Gist: Lane was fired in January from the station first after becoming the subject of several embarrassing news stories, including allegedly striking a police officer and sending bikini pictures of herself to a well-known sports anchor. In June, Mendte was fired after admitting that he illegally hacked into Lane's e-mail accounts and read hundreds of personal e-mails during the same time period when information about Lane's personal life was leaked to the media.

Oriya Actress Leslie Tripathy met with some sad fate when organisations like World Vision,Nandan Kanan chose to not go ahead with a professional relationaship with her,after her personal life came under media scrutiny post herobsessive-fan- stalker ended up up harassing her,she had to face some brunt and was stripped from being their Celebrity Ambassador.

Price of fame

Why do citizens in 70 countries prefer Obama to McCain?

Senator John McCain says when it comes to foreign policy he’s light years ahead of Barack Obama. Over and over again, McCain has insisted Obama lacks the necessary experience to conduct business with foreign countries on behalf of the United States.

So how do you explain this?

Citizens of dozens of foreign countries prefer Barack Obama over John McCain as our next president by a margin of almost 4 to 1, according to a massive poll conducted by the Gallup Organization. About 30 percent of those surveyed prefer Obama, while just 8 percent favor McCain.

This was no daily tracking poll either. Gallup polled people in 70 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and North and South America, representing nearly half the world’s population, between May and September of this year.

Citizens of the Philippines and Georgia were the only ones who preferred McCain to Obama. Not exactly the super-powers we’re looking to mend fences with.

Here’s my question to you: Why do citizens in 70 foreign countries prefer Barack Obama to John McCain by a margin of nearly 4-1?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

Justin from North Carolina writes:
Barack Obama is the candidate of reason. Only a fool would think of supporting the ticket with the oldest presidential nominee and a woefully inept vice presidential candidate are in the best interest of America or the world especially when the current disaster of a president proves to be more coherent than the both of them.

Kevin writes:
They prefer him because he’s a patsy and they know he’s going to pander to them. Kennedy was on medication during meetings with Khrushchev and Khrushchev called him a pygmy. No fear whatsoever. Good thing Kennedy did stand up to him during the Cuban missile crisis. Obama needs some testosterone shots. Putin, Chavez, the Castro’s, the Girl Scouts of China…anybody could chew him up, push him around, and spit him out.

F.S. from Rollinsford, N.H. writes:
Jack, just to let you know that from my wife’s and my visit to Europe for 3 weeks just recently, we couldn’t find anyone in 4 countries that wanted McCain for President. They all think he is warmonger and that Palin is a joke. Do they know something we don’t?

Jackie writes:
To be fair, I think McCain’s negativity rests with the “R” after his name. He is a decent man who, because of his age and knowing this is his last chance, sold his soul to the Republican National Committee.

Mike writes:
It’s simple. It may sound racist, but it’s really not. Foreign countries are tired of old white men bossing them around and looking down on them. They finally see someone who will respect & approach them as equals.

Zach writes:
Let’s see, Jack…where to begin…They don’t want to get bombed? They want to work with a well-spoken, even-keel U.S. President for a change? They’re smarter than almost half of the people in our own country?

Cindy McCain defends her blasphemous past and habits not to forget devious self

Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, decried the "viciousness of the media" Monday, days after the New York Times ran a front page story detailing her troubled history with prescription drugs and difficulty fitting into Washington social circles.

In an interview with Fox news that aired Monday night, Mrs. McCain said she thought the biggest difference between her husband's first presidential run eight years ago and his campaign this year was the media's attitude toward the Arizona senator's candidacy.

"What has really stunned me is the — quite honestly, is the kind of viciousness of the media on occasion," Mrs. McCain said. "In 2000 — there's certainly always been, you know, differences, and the — you know, the things that occur. But this has taken on a different tenor. And I don't know why and what's caused that, and I'm sorry for it because I think it turns a lot of young people off."

Cindy McCain's comments come a week after she accused Obama of waging the "dirtiest campaign" in U.S. history. On Monday, she also addressed the lengthy New York Times story directly, saying she has no plans to read it and has since received several messages of support.

"I did not read it, no. I did not read it, and I have no intention of reading it," she said. "My BlackBerry was loaded with friends the next morning saying, ‘I cannot believe this, you know? I'm sorry for you and all this.’"

The article drew a sharp response from the McCain campaign, which called it a "barrage of petty and personal attacks," and said the New York Times reporters "employed tactics that are obviously unprofessional and almost certainly unethical" in researching the story.

McCain attorney John Dowd also scolded the paper for rehashing a series of facts that he said have been long reported, and said they had failed to do similar investigative pieces into either Michelle or Barack Obama.

"It is worth noting that you have not employed your investigative assets looking into Michelle Obama. You have not tried to find Barack Obama's drug dealer that he wrote about in his book, Dreams of My Father," Dowd wrote in a letter to the paper.

18 Leadership secrets of Colin Powell

I stumbled across this interesting summary of Colin Powell’s leadership principles from the book, The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell. The summary was written by Mr. Oren Harari, a professor at the University of San Francisco. Who is Collin Powell you may ask!

Colin Powell is the first black secretary of state in U.S. history. Powell was born in New York City to Jamaican immigrants and attended City College of New York as a cadet in the Reserve Officers Training Corps. He served two tours of duty successfully in the Vietnam War from 1962-63 and once again from 1968-69 and then held important military and civilian positions before becoming national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan in 1987. In 1989, Powell was promoted to the rank of four-star general and was named chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff later that same year - the first black officer to hold the nation’s highest military post.

Colin Powell’s principles of leadership described in the book include the following:

1. Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
2. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
3. Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.
4. Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.
5. Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.
6. You don’t know what you can get away with until you try.
7. Keep looking below surface appearances. Don’t shrink from doing so (just) because you might not like what you find.
8. Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything. Plans don’t accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fall because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.
9. Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.
10. Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.
11. Fit no stereotypes. Don’t chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team’s mission.
12. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
13. Powell’s Rules for Picking People: Look for intelligence and judgment, and most critically, a capacity to anticipate, to see around corners. Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego, and the drive to get things done.
14. Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.
15. Part I: Use the formula P=40 to 70, in which P stands for the probability of success and the numbers indicate the percentage of information acquired. Part II: “Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut.
16. The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.
17. Have fun in your command. Don’t always run at a breakneck pace. Take leave when you’ve earned it: Spend time with your families. Corollary: surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.
18. Command is lonely.

Collin Powell Looks for a Hug from the Left by Endorsing Obama

Four out of five Secretaries of State surveyed recommend John McCain to those who will vote.

That’s right. Henry Kissenger, James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander Haig have all endorsed the Republican nominee. But like the one dentist out of five who recommends sugary gum, Colin Powell has endorsed Barack Obama.

That’s the only secretary of state endorsement the media wants to talk about, like it’s some “Republican on Republican crime.”

Powell has essentially endorsed the guy from the other team. But beware the effect of “that’s your own man saying so” in politics. Because which player is on what team isn’t always so clear.

Powell never fully committed to the Republican team, even while Republicans recognized his talents and made him National Security Adviser, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and secretary of state.

After the first Gulf War, when there was talk of Powell running for President, he was coy about which party he’d use to do it. His finger was in the political wind.

On liberal issues, Powell has been a fan of that weird civil right involving killing baby humans. He supports affirmative action, some gun control and won’t support a constitutional ban on burning the flag in protest of America here on her soil. He now complains Republicans are “too far right.” Where are we supposed to be, Colin?

So was Powell really a teammate of Republicans (despite having given McCain the maximum campaign donation allowed by law)?

I’ll admit though there are Republican positions Powell has supported…

Like the Iraq invasion. Since 2003 those on the left have painted Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz and anyone else at the top as more horrid than those who attacked us on 9/11.

If your motto is “Bush lied, people died,” surely you recognize the voice of Powell. He appeared at the UN to sell the invasion based on WMDs to the UN and the world.

So where now is the rage of the left, who even tried to have Rumsfeld indicted as a war criminal in several European countries? Will the left forgive and forget what they once saw as Powell’s crimes against humanity in exchange for a mere endorsement? Oh, that’s right, the left forgave Bill Ayers. Forgiving Powell should be a cinch.

What is really behind this endorsement is Powell looking for forgiveness and a hug from the left. This is what he said nearly a year ago about what he will look for in a candidate:

“A vision that reaches out to the rest of the world and starts to restore confidence in America. And starts to restore favorable ratings to America, frankly. We’ve lost a lot in recent years.”

If you agree (or care) that our standing in the world has been lessened by the Iraq invasion as Powell says, then it’s fair to say it’s Powell’s fault. Repair that and Powell gets to wake up tomorrow as a different person.

So the Obama endorsement is Powell’s personal mea culpa to the left for the Iraq invasion, without regard to whether Obama will be good or bad for America here at home.