Moderate liberal whose time is here

THE latest all-American hero is a 71-year-old grandfather of four. Well, at least to some Republicans out there.

It was a chilly 2°C on Tuesday evening when the white-haired Arizona senator John McCain turned up at St Regis Hotel in Manhattan for a private fund-raising event.

Despite the cold, about a dozen people stood outside the hotel, carrying placards that demonstrated their admiration for the presidential candidate of their choice.

“John, we love you”; “McCain, an American Hero”; “Keep America strong, Vote for McCain” and “New York loves Mac” were some of the declarations that evening.

It is McCain’s turn to be in the spotlight now, ever since he captured New Hampshire and South Carolina in the past three weeks. (The Republican Party has held selection rounds in six states so far.)

The man was nearly written off last year when his campaign failed to raise enough funds to keep the ball rolling. Apparently, some of his closest aides are even working without pay.

But, now, it is a different story. McCain is emerging as the most winnable Republican candidate in the war with the Democrat Party, which has a line-up of heavy-weight contenders in the likes of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

“The Democratic presidential debate last night mentioned my name a few times. It is clear that they view me as a formidable opponent. I totally agree with them,” he said, referring to Monday’s debate on CNN.

He joked with the press, saying that he had never believed in the polls “until now, when the numbers start to look better for me. It’s funny how your attitude changes.”

There was barely elbow room at the St Regis Library Room where the press conference took place. His aides were delighted with the press turnout; one of them took pictures of the photographers sitting on the floor waiting for their boss.

Former senator Alfonse M. D’Amato described McCain as a true national treasure and hero.

“This is a man whose time is here. He is the strongest Republican candidate. John McCain’s the man (to capture the White House),” he said.

To him, McCain was a man who “walks the talk” and who had supported a surge of 30,000 US troops in Iraq, which according to reports, had led to some measure of success there since.

Prior to this, his stance on Iraq had signalled his political demise, as Americans remained deeply unhappy about the war.

McCain’s youngest son is a 19-year-old marine serving in Iraq. The man himself was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for five years. According to his website, his aircraft was hit in October 1967 and he was subsequently held at the infamous “Hanoi Hilton”.

Much has been made about his age (he would be the oldest first-term president ever if he wins) but this former fighter pilot is a picture of health.

His mother is 95 years old, by the way.

McCain’s short address to the press that day was a summary of what he has been saying throughout his campaign; that he has the experience and knowledge to deal with Islamic extremism; he wants to lower taxes, unlike the Democrats who would do the opposite; and he wants to end Washington’s spending spree.

“We need to return to the Reagan years,” he said.

He also emphasised his plans for people who have lost their jobs, and his focus on job retraining.

W.H., a political writer, said Americans liked McCain because he was a candidate who appealed to a broad range of voters.

“In this case, Mike Huckabee (another Republican contender) is not a good choice; Americans are religious, but they are not religious nuts,” he said of the former Baptist pastor who won the Jan 3 Iowa caucuses based on support from working-class evangelical Christians.

“Huckabee is a bit too crazy with his stand on anti-evolution, anti-gay, etc. Moderates don’t like this kind of candidate. He is too much of a social conservative for American fence sitters.”

Another rival, Rudy Giuliani, is facing criticism over his personal life. He is most infamous for dumping his second wife at a press conference in 2000, a move that the woman had no prior knowledge of.

The thrice-married former New York mayor has lost in all the six nominating contests so far.

As for Mitt Romney, W.H. said he had not come clean about his Mormon faith. “He is also a millionaire businessman; many Americans do not feel that he is ‘one of us’,” he said.

“So, it looks like McCain is the most electable Republican presidential candidate. Why? Because he’s a moderate liberal, and Americans like that,” W.H. said.

Tuesday is the next big date for the Republicans when the nomination contest takes place in Florida.

Will it be Big Mac again? New York magazine reported him as a superstitious man who kept his lucky penny and compass on him during the New Hampshire contest.

“I found a nickel on the ground with its head up and I kept it,” McCain was recently quoted as saying. “With the head up, not the tail up.”

Be seen, or you are a nobody

THEIRS is a life above the mundane, their every move often recorded in the society pages of magazines and newspapers. Men in black, women wearing fabulous gowns attending fabulous parties Great Gatsby-style.

This is the lifestyle of the rich and famous so well chronicled in the New York Social Diary, a website that has now become almost de rigueur for those keen to follow the circle.

David Patrick Columbia, the man behind newyorksocialdiary.com, has been writing about New York society for almost 15 years.

He gets hundreds of invitations to dazzling parties, mostly sent out by people seeking publicity on the site.

For example, Frocks, Rocks & Cocktails: An Evening of Glamour & Wine is an event about fashion, gems and cocktails; in March, there'll be the Mad Hatters Tea Party in West Palm Beach, Florida, where women attending the benefit would wear their wildest hats.

Journalists often seek Columbia’s comments on what the Who’s Who are doing on the social scene.

He knows people from A to Z. The Hiltons, for example. Columbia has stories to share about their daughter Paris, whom he already knew when she was a mere 14-year-old.

“She didn’t do anything then except pose for pictures,” he said. In her early days, she would spend the summer with her sister Nicky in the Hamptons (a New York playground for the moneyed). “She was always willing to have her picture taken.”

One socialite who is gaining much attention these days is 39-year-old Gillian Miniter. “She’s getting involved in a lot of philanthropic organisations,” he explained.

As Columbia noted, philanthropic work has become an important device to get recognised. “It increases their standing in society.”

A check with The New York Times archives showed that Miniter, married to an investment banker, once spent US$3,500 (RM11,550) on a Hermès bag.

The New York Social Diary, which began seven years ago, gets about 500,000 unique visitors and 1.5 million page views each month.

That’s remarkable, considering that it encountered technical hitches initially which pushed co-founder Jeffrey Hirsch into going out to buy a “For Dummies” guide on how to go on the Internet just three days before its launch date.

Columbia and Hirsch are also editor-in-chief and associate editor, respectively, of Quest magazine, which reports about “New York from the inside”.

“The Diary has readers from all over the world, including Malaysia,” Hirsch said. The fascination was partly due to people’s interest about the lives of the rich and the powerful, he said.

“And a lot of people come to New York to pursue power and fame.”

New York, in short, is a very ambitious city. People generally are curious about the privileged set because they, at one time or another, dream of, and aspire to, such a life.

Readers also check out the Diary because they love the Big Apple and want to take a peek into its social life.

“There is a romantic notion of the city, which is part of its allure,” Hirsch said.

Columbia said the Diary appealed to a very broad demographics that included age and nationality.

“We try not to leave people out,” he said, pointing out that the Diary published a photo of the four housekeeping staff who cleaned their hotel rooms during their visit to Abu Dhabi in October last year when they were guests of the government at a conference that was attended by 16 Nobel laureates.

To the Diary, the housekeeping staff were witnesses to life on the fast lane.

“The Diary is very democratic. We want to include everybody,” said Hirsch.

But as expected, a picture speaks a thousand different words to different people.

“One woman, who isn’t fat at all, complained to us that her arm looked fat in one photo that we published. She thought we did it on purpose and wanted the photo removed,” said Hirsch.

Another woman, who just went through plastic surgery, did not want the Diary to use a previous photo of hers that would have portrayed her in her “former” look.

How do they handle such complaints?

“It depends on the circumstances. Sometimes we say we’re sorry,” he said. “We are not out to hurt people.”

Generally, most of the people they encountered were nice and pleasant.

“Some of the younger ones can be a bit snooty, but not the older set because these people understand the importance of our work,” Hirsch said.

Besides, the socialites know that they have to be nice, or at least fake it, as they would want to be liked, he added.

The glamour aside, attending all these fantastic parties is just part of the job.

“He has more stamina than me,” Hirsch laughed, pointing to Columbia.

Columbia responded: “We have deadlines. It can be stressful. Going to a party is just the beginning. I would have to write the stories, giving readers a feel that they were there as well.”

So, where are some of the places to be seen at in Gotham? Current hotspots include The Box, The Beatrice Inn and The Waverly Inn.

The term socialite is very much overused, according to Columbia. At the end of the day, it is all about socialising.

“You’ve got to go out a lot. In the New York scene, it’s all about going out. If people don’t see you, they won’t know you. It’s for men and especially women who want to seek that kind of attention.”

Election fatigue

NEWS travels in herds, but that does not mean every American is caught up in the whirl of election stories that dominate every headline these days.

A broadcast journalist went around showing photographs of Republican and Democratic contenders to the man-in-the-street recently. Not surprisingly, most of the people he approached could barely identify the candidates, except for the few prominent ones.

Faces of contenders such as Democrat Bill Richardson and Republican Ron Paul remain alien to the ordinary folk; never mind that Richardson is the first Hispanic seeking the presidential nomination, and the 72-year-old Paul created a record in raising US$6mil (RM19.6mil) on the Internet for his campaign.

(Richardson has since pulled out of his bid for the Oval Office after faring poorly in the Iowa and New Hampshire rounds.)

Polls have shown that a number of Americans are fed-up with the daily diet of political stories. To them, there is still a long way to go, election day being 11 months away. Americans pick their 44th president on Nov 4.

A survey last month conducted by The New York Times / CBS News on 1,028 people found that 54% remained inattentive towards opinion polls about the candidates.

About 80% declared that they hardly paid any attention to the campaign. To another question, 60% said they were less enthusiastic about voting.

In New York City, where there is reportedly a Starbucks every 0.05 square kilometres, the hurly-burly of politics is not everyone’s cup of coffee.

“I don’t follow this presidential race closely. I lost interest after the 2000 fight between George W. Bush and Al Gore,” said D.K., a Wall Street executive. Bush’s narrow victory over Gore led to a stalemate that was only broken by a court ruling.

At work, his colleagues seldom discussed the current race to the White House, he said.

“If we do touch on the subject, it would mostly be on how any new monetary policies would affect the stock market.”

The complexity of the US election process creates even less ripple.

Despite the non-stop coverage of the Iowa caucuses on Thursday last week, many people would be hard pressed to explain the term. To make matters more confusing, Republican and Democratic caucuses do not work the same way.

“I’m not sure what it is. We did not learn it in school last time,” D.K. said.

Indeed, a quick check with several students in the ninth and 11th grades found that they were not taught this in school. A 17-year-old pre-college girl also replied “no” to the query.

“It depends on which school you attend,” said medical editor Geoff Marx. In fact, his 10-year-old son had just completed an assignment for his social studies class on what takes place during a caucus.

The long and the short of it: A caucus is a local-level meeting of party members to determine the support for each candidate.

Marx is one of those who have no problems explaining the election process.

“I am fascinated by it,” he confessed. However, he acknowledged the intricacies in the system.

“It can be a bit crazy,” he added with a laugh.

He has been following the White House race mostly through the radio.

“I don’t read the blogs so much. And TV news coverage is packaged more towards entertainment,” he said.

Marx is rooting for John Edwards of the Democratic Party although the former North Carolina senator ended up a poor third in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.

“He’s more honest and truthful. His policies are closest to my point of view,” he said.

But Marx, a true-blue Democrat supporter, said he would vote for any candidate from the party.

“I just want to see the Democratic Party win this election,” he said.

He does not mind Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama who, according to The Washington Times, is being protected by 12 Secret Service agents since winning the caucuses in the Hawkeye State last Thursday.

Although he had been getting Secret Service protection since the end of last year, the number of agents assigned to him has increased of late due to fears for his safety as a black contender mounting a serious bid for the White House.

The score is now tied 1-1 between Obama and Clinton. She won in the Granite State (New Hampshire’s nickname) on Tuesday against all political predictions and polls.

The next stops are Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina and Florida. Notwithstanding that some people out there are not paying rapt attention, these states will hog the headlines until the end of this month, raising the mercury in the battle for the White House during these winter days.

Chinese hot pots just bubbling over

IN a country where there is a Ronald McDonald for every 21,000 Americans, the story of McDonald’s is that of a fast-food nation.

Similarly, Burger King which has 11,000 outlets throughout the United States and Wendy's, the number three hamburger chain, with 7,000 locations.

But even put together they are outnumbered by Chinese restaurants, which total 43,139, according to Chinese Restaurant News (CRN), a monthly publication distributed to all such eateries in 50 states.

“The number of Chinese restaurants has increased almost 150% since the late 1990s. Many of the recent ones are operated by newly immigrated families,” said CRN editor-in-chief Betty Xie.

California has the highest number of Chinese restaurants at 7,697. The Golden State’s 4.5 million Asians, or 12.4% of its population, is the biggest Asian population in the United States.

New York is number two on the list with 4,902 Chinese restaurants.

“The data is based on our national subscription list,” said Xie.

Almost 87% of the California-based publication is sent out to family-run restaurants.

The Chinese-language CRN, started in 1995, lays claim to being the largest publication focussing solely on American-Chinese restaurants in North America.

According to Xie, there is a huge array of Chinese food available in big cities like New York and Los Angeles.

Regulars on the menu would be authentic Cantonese fare such as dim sum, claypot servings like pork belly with May-Cai preserves, thousand-year eggs and roast duck rice congee, steamed fish with ginger and scallion, winter melon and pork bone soup, bitter melon and stir-fried beef.

“Also available are regional dishes like Peking Duck (Beijing Pian Pi Ya), Shanghai Shiao-Long soup dumplings, Sichuan Dan-Dan Mein (cold noodle bowl), Sichuan Ma-La (peppery spicy) hot pot, DongBei Jiaozi (Mandarin boiled dumplings) and Beijing Lamb hot pot,” she added.

Xie said Sichuan and Cantonese cuisine would continue to be popular as it was the most recognised Chinese food among the American public.

Shanghainese delicacies are getting very popular, too.

“One major reason is the rise of Beijing and Shanghai on the global investment map. These cities are experiencing fast economic growth and their cuisine is getting popular outside of China.”

What is the next trend in Chinese food here?

“More Chinese restaurants are becoming aware of fusion food and there are more high-end fine dining Chinese restaurants now compared with 20 years ago.”

Xie believes there will also be more family-operated chains and restaurants that are run on a bigger scale.

She noted that take-outs and food court units were not so popular 10 years ago.

“However, we have seen great success in the supermarket food counter offering family food packages like take-home and reheat meals. Some call it the ‘home meal replacement’ trend.”

But despite the wide availability of Chinese food, it is not the most popular vote among American diners seeking a taste of Asia.

Japanese food is.

“Sushi, especially, succeeds in its artful presentation, simple food ingredients and consistent standard in taste and quality. All these factors need to be established in Chinese restaurants in the United States,” Xie explained.

She said that many American-Chinese restaurateurs had noted the “trade secrets” of Japanese eateries.

“They have made culinary trips to China to bring back know-how.”

But perhaps there is another setback, as pointed out by Nina and Tim Zagat, founders of the popular restaurant guide that bears their name.

“Getting ingredients is no longer an issue. Instead, the principal obstacle to improving Chinese fare here is the difficulty in getting visas for skilled workers since Sept 11,” they said in a June article in The New York Times.

They also observed that while the quality of other Asian cuisine such as Korean, Thai and Vietnamese had soared, “the Chinese restaurant experience is the same tired routine – unimaginative dishes served amid dated, pseudo-imperial décor.”

Nevertheless, it is still chow down time in America.