The final phase of the American Presidential election has been reached with both the Democrats and Republicans announcing their Presidential candidate as well as the Vice Presidential candidate. While Barack Obama accepted the nomination at the Democratic convention at Denver with Senator Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate, John McCain accepted the GOP nomination at the convention at Minneapolis choosing the Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin as his running mate. The nomination acceptance speech by both Obama and McCain threw some light on the character of these two men as well as the policies that they would pursue if elected the President of the United States.

Anyone who has followed this blog closely will understand that I am a strong supporter of Barack Obama. The reason for the support is based more on the personality and qualities of Obama as a leader and an orator than on the policies he vow he will follow. As Bill Clinton said in the convention, Obama has a remarkable ability to inspire people. And there is no doubt that he is one of the most prolific orators of our time, capable of arousing awe, respect and conspicuous motivation.

Obama used his acceptance speech to explain his policies and to counter the criticisms that McCain campaign has been pouring on him. He spoke about his Kenyan father and Kansas mother and their aspirations, spoke about his grandmother who sacrificed her pleasure and time to make sure that Obama got a good education and also spoke about how his mother argued with insurance companies for getting insurance while she was suffering from cancer. Thus by explaining in detail the struggles he and his family endured, he counter attacked McCain�s campaign, which often ridiculed Obama as a celebrity rather than a politician, by saying that �I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine.�

Barack Obama, who had often been criticised for his lack of offensive capabilities towards the McCain campaign, chose the occasion to show that he too has the gladiatorial daring which the Americans want in their President. He said that if John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate he is ready to have. While praising McCain for his record as a brave soldier in the American army during the Vietnamese war, Obama derided him by saying that he voted for President George Bush�s flawed policies ninety percentage of times and therefore by choosing McCain as the next President he don�t want to take a ten percent chance on change.

The major policy initiatives that Obama want to pursue include a cut in taxes, investment in affordable energy, investment in childhood education, providing accessible healthcare to all, close corporate loop holes on taxes, end the Iraq war responsibly, direct diplomacy to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and to curb Russian �aggression� and fix the economy which is inching towards a recession.

Obama or McCain, the American foreign policy is not going to see a paradigm shift from the policy the country has been following for a very long time. But as we continue to despise the malevolent foreign policy that the Americans follow, we can hardly help ourselves from admiring the democracy prevailing there and the academic intelligence, acumen and quality of the politicians of various parties. The mutual respect with which Obama and McCain competes with each other is worthy of emulating in the Indian system of democracy as well.

If we Indians get jealous on the quality of politicians that the Americans have, one cannot find fault with us, especially when we are having a lot of politicians who are neither educated nor well behaved. As if this is not enough, we also have a lot of rogue politicians amidst us, who are not at all averse to making ghoulish comments even on the tears of a mother who had lost her son in a tragic event, as depicted recently by a boorish politician in Kerala.

Going back to Obama and his American promise, one can only hope that his aspiration to bring change to Washington will happen sooner rather than later. We can also hope that there will be some change in the warmongering nature of the United States under the Presidency of Barack Obama and peace and tranquillity will prevail in Iraq, Afghanistan and in the world in general. But for all these things to happen he has to win the Presidential election due on 4th November to be the first African-American to become the President of the United States.