Finally, the most singular disputation of the current U.S. Presidential race is finally put forth into the wide open as Associated Press reports how even a substantial portion of the white voters from the Democratic Party could turn away from Sen. Barack Obama and vote for Sen. John McCain instead. I am actually a bit in amazement now about how the early polls show Sen. Obama still toe-to-toe with Sen. McCain, on equal footing, despite the many negativity of the present Bush Administration, the unpopularity of Pres. George W. Bush, the costly Iraq War, the current economic downturn in US economy and the serious Palin debacle.

The answer is merely one thing, and it’s none other than race; just as I thought it would be, or perhaps many of us had thought it would be.

Statistics shows that a third of the white voters from the Democratic Party have deep resentments about the black American community, seeing them as being "lazy," "violent," and responsible for their own troubles.

Stamford University in fact has just made a study determining how the number of white voters that might turn away from Sen. Obama could even be larger than the margin of the 2004 US Presidential Elections, where Pres. Bush defeated the then Democratic Party nominee Sen. John Kerry by just 3 percentage point among popular votes and by mere 34 electoral votes of 538.

If the surveys remains as close as this until November then Sen. Obama might just miss the train to the White House as where a third white Democrats could remain anonymous at present and then turn away from him when election day comes.

And that tells us, as many of us still suspected, that America still has problems with race, especially with the African-American sector, fifty years after segregation in America had ended.

Primarily, Senator John McCain’s and that of the GOP’s bid to retain the US presidency is in great jeopardy at this moment. The main question arising now is whether or not Alaska governor Sarah Palin could weather the media storm that had befell the Republican Party side ever since she announced her 17 year old daughter’s pregnancy to the public. It’s a case for Murphy---just when they would have thought that nothing could go wrong, something did.

Imagine that Palin is from Alaska and we all know that Alaska does not really get anybody’s attention and interest except for polar bears and melting ice caps. That was the main gamble, Palin being a complete nobody.

But she’s personable enough to withstand that anonymity, as Sen. McCain would hope and I think that’s a fair chance. But despite of this apprehension, the pregnancy issue comes forth. I could almost feel the headache on every Republican Party strategist.

So there’s hope. That’s what is important now. Let us say that ‘nobody’s perfect’ and that this is a ‘brave new world’ where acceptability of norms and mores just got widened and besides, America ought to be the broadest-minded nation in the whole world.

Yet in politics, every candidate should be ‘perfect’. That should be a cardinal rule; to be perfect even if they have to lie or become hypocritical. It’s a jungle ought there.

Now I am reminded by Joe Kelin’s “Primary Colors”. Just when I thought that that the political election book was such a clever and very dramatic work, it pales in comparison to the drama and twists of this year’s US elections.

I must admit that while I felt that I had been educated enough to monitor American politics reasonably well in recent months, I was actually one of those who got so surprised when Democratic Party presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama had announced Senator Joe Biden of Delaware to be his running mate come November ---not Hillary Clinton as I expected he would be picking or at least John Edwards (if only he wasn’t blotched by an admitted affair.)

So Senator Joe Biden becomes the man of the hour, being set into the middle of the race despite being inconspicuous for most of the much-ballyhooed Obama-Clinton race for the Democratic Party nomination, one that had ended with a little bitter taste in the mouth. He is suddenly into the thick of things like having a bye in Wimbledon or a wild card slot in major league baseball.

Senator Biden is as white as any American could possibly be and I couldn’t help but immediately make out of this as the main quality that had gained him Sen. Obama’s nod. You know, to put a compromise to his being the first-ever African-American presidential nominee, where despite being so fancied for that, is sadly his greatest disadvantage. I felt now, that the contrast might be too obvious for comfort and turn away blue collar votes (where he is seen to be so weak at) instead of gaining them, losing further votes of middle-of-the-road white American workers that had supported Sen. Clinton’s almost successful run, and the vote that is considered to be as prevalent as the white vote itself.

Accordingly, it was Sen. Joe Biden’s competence on foreign policy matters that had earned him the Democrat’s vice-presidential nomination, a field where Sen. Obama is seen to be wanting. In this age of global warming, rising oil prices in the world market, rigid WTO negotiations, and spurts of conflicts in central Europe and the Iraq tension still permeating, foreign affairs would be an immense concern for the next president of America.

And in an ever-expanding global community, where borders disappear from one place and reappear in another, where regionalism is the new game that nations play, foreign policy or foreign affairs should become all the more essential as a national interest issue, now more than ever, and not only for America, but to every state or country there is.

THE SUPERDELEGATES--- any of you who have been closely watching the rollercoaster of a Democratic Party primary elections have surely heard about them already. I for one hasn’t had heard of them except for now; despite that I have had great interest in U.S. pre-election contests for many years now.

Of course --- contrary to the way they are termed --- they aren’t newly-invented superheroes with flowing capes and glinting gloves fitted to their hands, but real people who are designated to hold distinguished positions in the Democratic Party organizations and has superior voting preferences in the primaries, that in the Democratic Party convention this coming August, they might just be the ones to put finality as to the person of the party standard bearer, whether Senator Barack Obama or Senator Hillary Clinton.

As of now, Sen. Obama had gained more pledge votes by performing well in a number of primaries and caucuses held earlier in the year, more than what Sen. Clinton had gained that right now, Sen. Obama merely needs 176 pledged votes in the remaining primaries for him to finally clinch the nomination.

But as of now, and despite the magic number 176 of Obama, the contest is still seen by many as tight and could still run wide open as the next state to vote, which is West Virginia, is expected to go largely in favor of Sen. Clinton.

The latest news is that Sen. Obama had finally overtaken Sen. Clinton in the number of superdelegates that are expected to vote in August. Observers have suggested that in order for Sen. Clinton to overturn the overall lead of Sen. Obama throughout the primaries, she needs to win big among the superdelegates in August. A slight margin of win for her among the superdelegates would not matter as much.

There were some early criticisms in fact about how the Democratic Party nomination system could become undemocratic in a certain way, where the superdelegates could decide to set aside the results of the primaries, after hundreds of thousands of Democratic Party members throughout America from East Coast to West Coast, have exerted efforts to voice out their nomination choices, only to be overturned by the superdelegates, who are party stalwarts designated to their position or stature merely because they are party officials and elected officials. They are called PLEO’s.

There is no stopping the superdelegates from going against the will of the majority or results of the numerous primaries; they could vote irrespective of the primary results, especially in a very tight contest like this. That, even if Sen. Obama garnered the most votes in the primaries, the superdelegates could still overturn this and push Sen. Clinton as the party standard bearer by largely voting for her. “So much for democracy”, I have heard one party member quipped over CNN.

So the race they say between Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton would most possibly go down the wire, even towards August during the party convention where the superdelegates would finally vote, and this despite many observers had already advised Sen. Clinton to withdraw from the race as the lead of Sen. Obama in the primaries is nearly insurmountable, merely a mathematical possibility.

But because superdelegates could still matter in August, Sen. Clinton is pushing on.