I visited Barack Obama's website search for a polo shirt as a means to donate and get something to wear to show my support. The Obama logo in my opinion is by far one of the catchiest designs and brands I've seen in the political realm, which usually tends to have bland and unimaginative designs for the official merchandise at least.

I was surprised to find the polo shirt, which should be among the first items in a line of merchandise after the t-shirt completely absent from the shop; in its place were less basic offerings such as Obama skull caps and fleece. A quick visit to the Hillary Clinton Shop yielded similar product offerings on what appears to be an identical e-commerce engine. It appears from first glance that both campaigns may share common vendor(s) used for printing/embroidery and a single design firm employed manage the e-commerce side of the operation.

I also visited the McCain Campaign store and not surprisingly did find several polo shirts among the offerings. I should add that the McCain design is also original compared to your run-of-the-mill political candidate logo, however I tend to shy away from brands that have little or no graphic component and that over emphasize the name of a person, which admittedly in politics is hard to avoid.

The polo shirt is the staple of semi-casual dress for a demographic that Obama allegedly has made inroads with on the Democratic side of the race: professional college-educated 30-40 year old male age group. While the Republicans are admittedly pros at catering to white collar male professionals, the Obama shop at least seems to be geared toward his younger supporters prone to wearing t-shirts for most occasions, neatly tucking their iPod earphones under a stylish Obama for president skull cap.

Obama Campaign Store
Clinton Campaign Store
McCain Campaign Store

I went to see Syriana earlier this afternoon and I have to say that it was a riveting experience. I don't think any modern film presents the diverse facets of US foreign policy in the Middle East, the global energy crisis, the power plays in policy making by the special interests in DC and the complex nature of the war on terror as well as this movie does.

Although the film is fiction and not meant to be political commentary per se, it leaves the moral judgments up to the viewer and does an astounding job of presenting the various factions in the storyline. I recommend this Syriana very highly to everyone on the Grill regardless of political ideology.

While I'm no movie buff (this is my first trip to the movie theater this year), I can say that I was literally dumbfounded by how powerful the film is in presenting a very complex and intricate subject matter in a completely fictional plot and how accurately it depicts the cultural and political perspectives of all the power players involved. I would be interested to hear from anyone who sees the movie, particularly if they don't have any background in Middle East affairs or knowledge of the politics and cultural intricacies of the region.

As a side note Arab, Pakistani and Persian actors were used in the film so native languages are spoken in a large chunk of the movie (with English sub-titles) which provided a very authentic feel. The performances by George Clooney, Matt Damon and the rest of the cast were also excellent. I was lucky enough also to to catch part of an interview with Stephen Gaghan before seeing the movie.

The history of Iraq and the region has proven that a democratic republic called for by some Iraqi political forces is no more than a romantic slogan aimed at achieving gains of no real substance. The majority of republics in the Middle East have brought about successively greater states of chaos, and degenerated into individual or single-party dictatorships. They have also hindered the stability of their respective societies. Partisan military and state security forces have worked to guarantee the re-election of their leader, thus ensuring that he remains in power for life.