I disagree with Prashant about the election in USA. I think Paul Glastris closer to the truth; the current US election campaign is a story of Homeric proportions:

Watching the whole sorry episode of swift boats slowly explode over the airwaves over the last few weeks and then engulf the USA presidential campaign was a surreal experience.

Looking at John Kerry today, it is obvious that the man who made this speech in 1970 (you have to scroll down to the "statement of John Kerry" or see here) is not the man who is standing for election today; although I like to believe that some of that idealism has survived 35 years of politicking, however faded it might be.

I can understand that many Americans may not agree with my judgement there (just try convincing passengers in any bus or train in Uttar Pradesh that not all Jawans may had acted honourably during their missions in Punjab or Kashmir. The unique blinkers that fervent nationalism provides you with are more pronounced in USA) Indian mythologies are in the past, Americans mythologize their present. So I can understand that many Americans are still pissed at the stance that Kerry took after coming back from war. But the fact that a group of people can rewrite what actually happened and can get away with it was something that I did not think possible; that it is considered standard operating procedure speaks volumes about the vulnerabilities of the electronic media and how pressure groups can exploit them.

Somehow, I can't help thinking about Adam Cohen's op-ed on Thoreau in NYT today.