Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

US & Int'l Papers

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The Pennsylvania Primary From Afar

Monday April 21, 2008

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From Abu Dhabi, UAE

I am in Abu Dhabi to give a speech tomorrow to a conference sponsored the financial firm, UBS. As long-term readers of MULLINGS have come to know, I have been to this region many times and I like it.

One of the advantages of being in the Middle East is that there is an eight-hour time difference. I am typing this at 10:30 Monday morning UAE time which is 2:30 AM in Your Nation's Capital.

While 90% of those of you on US soil are fixated on the primary election in Pennsylvania tomorrow, the major English language newspaper here, The Gulf News, found it could wait until page 23 before getting to the US elections.

The major story on the front page of The Gulf News describes the decision by the United Arab Emirates to begin moving toward nuclear power to meet its energy needs by 2020.

You may know that they grow oil here, so if the Emirates think they need to move to nuclear power, what do you think will happen to the power grid in the United States over the next couple of decades.

SIDEBAR

Gasoline here is about two dirhams per liter. A dirham (the unit of currency in the UAE) is about 27�; there are about four liters to the gallon so petrol is about $1.08 a gallon.
Actually, according to the NY Times, the price of a gallon of gas (not adjusted for inflation) in the US didn't break through the one dollar barrier until 1980.
Although, when measured in 2007 dollars, a gallon of gasoline has never dipped below a dollar a gallon, and from1920 to 1985 was almost always north of two dollars per gallon.

END SIDEBAR

As we are somewhat more interested in the ins-and-outs of the American political landscape than the average Abu Dhabian, the campaign finance reports for March have been released showing that Sen. Barack Obama raised $41 million during the month - down from the $55 million he raised in February - but still unbelievable by any rational standard.

Overall, Obama has raised some $235 million. At his current rate he will have broken through the QUARTER OF A BILLION DOLLAR mark by mid month.

There is a point of diminishing returns, however. When that point is reached, the additional money spent does not have an additional impact on the campaign.

No matter by how much Obama will have outspent Sen. Hillary Clinton between April 1 and tomorrow night, the RealClearPolitics.com polling summary shows Hillary hanging onto a six-ish point lead moving into the final hours of the campaign there.

SIDEBAR II

While we're on the subject of RealClearPolitics, I am probably never going to write about, or speak to, The Lad again as long as I live.
It is not enough that he has interpersonal skills which I cannot even pronounce.
It is not enough that he has a better head for business than I can even calculate.
It is not enough that he has progressed so quickly in politics that while he used to be known as "Rich Galen's son," nowadays I am known as "Reed Galen's dad."
Now, it turns out, he is every bit as good a writer as I am and a much better analyst than I will ever be as his essay which was published on the RealClearPolitics website late last week really, clearly shows. The link is on the Secret Decoder Ring page.
Humbug.

END SIDEBAR II

Finally, on all this, Barack is in a full whine saying Hillary is throwing "the kitchen sink" at him with charges which are nothing but "distractions" from the big issues. ABC's Jake Tapper captured the theme on his blog, writing:

"How on Earth can Obama with a straight face decry these "distractions" when his campaign that very same day organized a conference call to harp on Clinton's Bosnia-sniper-fire gaffe?"

This has gotten so ugly, that I am not now certain Hillary will get out of this thing even if she loses tomorrow.

Hope, as they say, springs eternal.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the NY Times graphic on gasoline prices through the ages, a map of the Middle East for your viewing pleasure, the RealClearPolitics polling summary for the Pennsylvania primary, the link to The Lad's essay, and Jack Tapper's blog.

Also a Mullfoto from the Amsterdam Airport the other day and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

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