Word: politicians
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Yuriko Koike is a Japanese politician with an engaging manner, a fine track record as a cabinet minister, a worldly outlook and the sort of fresh approach that Japanese politics so desperately needs. None of that did her much good when she recently ran for the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party - she received just 46 ballots out of a possible 527. Why did she do so badly? Not just because of some residual male chauvinism, perhaps, but also because she was too obviously the candidate of reform, of liberalization - in other words, she was the candidate...
Pakistan may currently enjoy what seems to be a healthy if noisy democracy, but the office of army chief remains the most powerful one in the country - certainly exceeding the effective control of any politician or civilian bureaucrat. And now Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, is showing that he is truly in charge of the military - and hence the most powerful man in the country...
What you did miss was an amazing week of political theater, starring the frenetic, operatic, borderline erratic McCain, the former fighter pilot who seems to have found his calling as a kamikaze politician. He might not win the election - another thing you missed this week was Barack Obama pulling ahead in the polls - but when it's over he's a shoo-in for a show on TNT. RuPaul doesn't know drama like McCain knows drama...
...deaf and anecdotes about Normandy and George Shultz seemed ill-advised - even his pen was old. His presentation was further hindered by his wandering discussion of the differing heights of North and South Koreans and his angry assertion about how well he knows Henry Kissinger. Fell into the classic politician's trap of inserting familiar stump speech applause lines into debate responses - which only works if done with enthusiasm and clarity (and if received by applause - a big No-No in Lehrer's auditorium, which the audience obeyed seriously and silently). Keenly aware of the grand, grave occasion, McCain wavered...
...While many reactions have been hostile, some Pakistanis have laughed off the exchange as nothing more than a source of inconsequential merriment. But the country's religious conservatives are unlikely to be so forgiving. A previous inappropriate encounter between a leading Pakistani male politician and an American female politician was seized on by political opponents in Parliament: Condoleezza Rice biographer Marcus Mabry described in pitiless detail an abortive charm offensive by former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on the U.S. Secretary of State, after Aziz had allegedly told diplomats that "he could conquer any woman in two minutes...