Shrinking world

Yesterday, my BIL from India asked me about the Clinton vs Obama duel going on and I was pleasantly surprised...It's like somebody here asking whether Manmohan Singh/ Sonia Gandhi would/should be our next Prime Ministerial candidate...well, they might not even know Manmohan, but that's a different issue :).

I have never ever followed the presidential campaign so closely myself and for the first the whole process of a presidential election is clear to me...don't know what pricked my interest, but something surely did...what pricked my BIL's interest? Why does this whole process have such high visibility this time? You know, there was a headline in Rediff that said "Obama wins Mississippi"...Obama wins Mississipppi and we have it our biggest portal in India!! He didn't even win the nominee :)..and Mississippi is a small state that almost doesn't count towards the tally (well, if the race weren't so close ...)

So, why do you think this sudden surge in interest? Is it the result of an extremely close race or the case of an economy in doldrums or Obama's charisma and the fact that he will really be "from the people" or just a lack of other interesting things going on in the world or is it because the "World is Flat and Shrinking"? Me thinks that it is a mixture of all of those but most importantly the last one! We are in a truly globalized world and any significant effect anywhere will have deep connotation s to other parts of the world!!

Btw, Obama and Clinton have been very actively campaigning on the web! Have we ever seen that...social networking too and it is taking all this a step higher!!