While Barack Obama may be smart and diligent, and very well deserving of his post as President, he is first and foremost an incredibly lucky man. Perhaps some of the readers will recall what I wrote during the U.S. presidential election campaigns, that Obama would have never got into the Senate, let alone the White House, had it not been for two consecutive sexual scandals: While his Democratic opponent in Illinois in 2004 - millionaire candidate Blair Hull - was well ahead of Obama in the polls, his divorce papers on the eve of the election revealed that he used to beat his wife, a scandal resulting in Obama becoming the de facto Democratic candidate. During the general elections, Obama's Republican opponent Jack Ryan was exposed to have had forced his wife - actress Jenny Ryan - to go to sex clubs with him. He subsequently lost both his wife and his candidacy. Obama then won the election, defeating his remaining weak opponent, Alan Keyes. But even if these two scandals, with their strange timing, were enough to bring Obama to the Senate, they would not have been enough to secure the presidency for him, had it not also been for the global financial crisis starting in America. This has led voters to back away from the ruling party's candidate, since the blame for the economic ruin and hardship that befell the working citizens was placed on the Republican Administration. This week, Newsweek published on its website a report about Obama emphasizing his continuous lucky streak, and how the South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who would have been a strong opponent for Obama in 2012, is embroiled in a sex scandal that has irreversibly damaged his political career. He has been exposed to have had an extramarital affair in Argentina, as well other sexual encounters, while he was the one who called for the impeachment of Bill Clinton following the Monica Lewinsky scandal. While the magazine had just barely published this article, the President hit the equivalent of a political jackpot when Minnesota's Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Democratic Al Franken had won the state's U.S. Senate race over Republican Norm Coleman. The numbers of votes that both candidates received were so close that they ended up bickering in courts. This ruling effectively gives the Democrats a 60-seat majority in the senate, that theoretically would allow them to block any Republican filibusters [a form of obstruction in a legislature or other decision-making body], in addition to the Democratic control of the House of Representatives. I knew Coleman from conferences such as Davos, the Dead Sea and Sharm El-Sheikh. He is a Jew, like Franken, and his wife is Catholic and extremely tall and good looking, and I think that she might be a former model. Although Coleman is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, he aligned himself with the policies of the Bush administration. Nevertheless, he was more moderate than the extremists in the committee, and we had the chance to exchange some ideas through email. I would have preferred it if Franken had defeated one of the Likudian fanatics like Arlen Specter or Joe Liberman, instead of Coleman, but sadly the American elections do not always go the way I want them to. Otherwise, my son or my brother would have become Presidents, since they are American citizens, and the first was born in Washington D.C on the day of George Washington's birthday. While Franken may not be widely known in our region, in the United States he is more famous than most of the members of both houses of Congress. He is a television star, a comedian and a writer, and I had written about his book “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" in this column, and in which he exposes – with supporting documents – the lies of the Bush administration in building the case for the war on Iraq then in the subsequent invasion. I also mentioned his book “Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot”. Franken fought many battles against the symbols of the American right, using humour as a weapon. I believe that he's won all of his battles, but this may be my own opinion since I have always supported him. Does the dear reader want to hear more about Obama's good luck? I'm afraid to inflict on him an “evil eye” here, but professional integrity – and gloating – requires me to talk a little about Sarah Palin, John McCain's candidate for Vice President last year, and who once said that she is an expert on Russian affairs because she could see Russia out her window in Alaska. The neoconservatives had put her forward as a potential presidential candidate for 2012, because she is even dumber than George W. Bush, and they would be able to rule with her in the front. However, the political collapse of Mark Sanford, and Franken's entry to the senate coincided with a fierce quarrel between prominent neoconservatives, when Vanity Fair published a report about Palin. The report mentioned that the leaks showing her ignorance and her incompetence came from members in McCain's campaign. Meanwhile, with the blame jumping from one Likudnik to another, reports were published about Palin's mental faculties, which are now also under suspicion. All of this convinced me never to play backgammon with Barack Obama, and for now I will just play with Prince Khalid bin Sultan. He too is lucky, but not always, and when he beats me I pretend that he is lucky, but when I beat him, I claim it is because of my skills in playing the game.
