Most observers of American politics will expect the Democratic Party to have arrived at a post-racial modernity. After all, it is the party that espouses equality and racial justice, the party that attracts the vast majority of the African American vote. But, if it has done nothing else, the 2008 race for the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination has proven that bigotry is alive and well within the party that claims liberal moorings. And that bigotry flows from the top. Former President Bill Clinton, campaigning for his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, described her rival, Senator Barack Obama's drive to clinch the nomination as a "fairy tale", a term with loaded meaning for blacks. Having been the Governor of the southern state of Arkansas, Bill Clinton would have been well aware of that. Clinton didn't stop there at obliquely race-baiting Obama. As Obama comfortably triumphed in the crucial South Carolina Democratic primary, the former President likened that win the Jesse Jackson's wins in 1984 and 1988 in...

During the winter of 2007 I spoke to several Republicans (as I did to Democrats) to gauge the mood within the party with regard to the US Presidential elections which were to be held just about a year later. There was one word to describe their reaction - dejection. They expected a blowback from the voters on the Iraq war, on the economy, on the George W Bush Administration. Just about three months later, everything has changed for the Republicans. Groans have changed to chuckles; frowns to smiles. And that's exactly why Arizona Senator John McCain won big on March 4, 2008. First, McCain captured the Republican party nomination. Now he has plenty of time to revitalize the party, forge a strategy on the principal issues that will confront him in the November election, build a coherent team; create a grassroots network throughout America and raise tens of millions of dollars for that contest. And all that while the two Democratic contenders, Hillary Clinton...

The cycle for the US Presidential elections starts in January with the Iowa caucus. So, there we were in Des Moines, the State's capital on New Year's Day, 2008. It was lovely day if you enjoy frostbite weather. The temperature was perhaps around - 12 degree Celsius. That's minus. Around midday, I found myself standing on the sidewalk opposite the campaign office of Mike Huckabee looking for Iowans to interviews on their views on the election. Just one woman was visible on the streets. So, I stopped her. She laughed and said she was a journalist too, from Texas. And stated the obvious, that only journalists would be stupid enough to be out in this weather. She was wrong because minutes later two more women walked towards us. They turned out to be Huckabee's sister and niece. So, add political workers to the list of those dumb enough to out in subzero hell. I've covered elections in India too. In fact, on general election...

I should begin this with a disclaimer: I'm a huge fan both of Salman Rushdie the author and Salman Rushdie the person. I applaud when his contribution to intellectual life is recognized as it has been by the British Government in deciding on a knighthood for him. My rationale? Let me begin with the author. Rushdie brought magic realism into the mainstream as he did Indo-Anglian writing, setting the stage (and a market) for the likes of Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai, who succeeded him as Indian (or at least Indian-born) Booker Prize winners. He started all that off with the magnificent Midnight's Children. Of course, his first book was the neglected work of fantasy/science fiction Grimus, but Midnight's Children was the one that got him noticed. He's written many books since then, mostly amazing literature. Among them are Shame, Haroun And The Sea Of Stories. He's also written a couple of awful books. Fury comes to mind as well The...