Outsourcing the business of predicting the Obama-McCain race to India, via Vaastu
Raju Narisetti -
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 11:03 AM
It is eight days to go before Americans finally decide on their next president. By many accounts—and most polls and forecasts--Barack Obama is walking away with the election. Still, there are serious questions about many of the polls as well as the methodology, a little-discussed debate in mainstream media that is effectively captured by The Numbers Guy’s blog at WSJ.com who suggests this race is actually far from over. Notes The Numbers Guy:“Assumptions about turnout can have a big effect on the results. The New Republic chronicled the “new, frenetic age of polling,” which “has not necessarily led to more empirical certainty.” In The Wall Street Journal, Michael Barone discussed several areas of empirical uncertainty, including the finding that exit polls may overstate Democratic support next week. And the Associated Press offered answers to frequently asked questions about polling, including how pollsters predict which voters will go to the polls. Nate Silver and Mark Blumenthal, whose sites aggregate and evaluate multiple polls, also tackled this question. Meanwhile, Real Clear Politics’ Jay Cost writes that the disagreement between polls is bigger than you’d expect from random variation.” (Read the complete blog and related links here).I have an idea. Maybe it is time America outsourced its poll predictions business too, sending it to Bangalore along with all the other stuff being handled out of India’s tech (call) center. And, here is one man who is ready, able and willing: Niranjan Babu.
Mr. Babu wrote to me saying he is an “international consultant in Vastu Shastra, Vedic Astrology and related sciences.” Mr. Babu adds his forte is “application of the ancient principles to the modern changed conditions of construction activity in both micro projects like residences, commercial establishments, residences, commercial establishments, business offices , restaurants, small temples, etc., and mega projects like creation of layouts and sub-divisions, infrastructure, temple complexes, educational institutions and corporate, health and business complexes, airports.” He also happens to be CEO, Publisher and Managing Editor of something called The Astrological Magazine whose web site, somewhat ironically perhaps for a predictive astrology-based offering, says due to unforeseen circumstances beyond the control of the publishers, the magazine is discontinued from December 2007. Anyway, this is how Mr Babu says he is seeing the race:Methodology:Our analysis is based on the creation of the Peeta Mandala or nine module plan of Vastu. This plan of Vastu is laid over the geographical map of USA. It divides the country into nine parts or modules that identify the four cardinal and four angular directions apart from the central area. Vastu sastra identifies South, West and Southwest as the strength and stability areas; North and Northeast are the comfort and contentment areas; East is the royalty and political power area; while Southeast and Northwest are the dynamic or movement areas. The central area is the important place of total awareness or Brahmasthana.
The Sample Size:“The Republican Party nominee John Sidney McCain is the senator from Arizona, which is the strength and stability area of USA. He is vying for the Presidential seat in Washington DC, the comfort and contentment area. His movement is from southwest to northeast. When the module of Arizona is further split into another nine modules, we find that it falls in the south of the inner module denoting Mars or aggressiveness.
The Democratic Party nominee, Barack Obama is the senator from Illinois, which is the total awareness area. His movement to the seat of power, the comfort and contentment area is to the east, the royalty and political power area, but it is also dynamic, because of the slight southeast location. When the module of Illinois is further split into another nine modules, we find it falls into the northeast and east of that inner module denoting Jupiter and the Sun denoting wisdom and royalty.”The Analysis:“Based on the above Vastu evaluation that integrates locations, directions and related planets with various aspects of power and fame, both the candidates have good Vastu related energies. That is, McCain moves from the area of strength and stability (through sector of aggressiveness) to the area of comfort and contentment, while Obama moves from the area of total awareness (through the sectors of wisdom and royalty) to the area of royalty. This indicates that the well contested political fight will be close. The powerful seat of the President of USA is not a seat of comfort and contentment. Obama moving into the area of royalty and political power coupled with the slight leaning to dynamism seems to give him the Vastu edge over McCain.”The Verdict:Therefore, Obama is very likely to be the next President of USA.Of course, Mr. Babu knows that every forecaster worth his chad should leave a door open, just in case. His escape clause:
“The beauty of Vastu is that it not only indicates the likely outcome but also suggests remedial measures which can be used to one's advantage by rectifying imbalances. In the case of McCain, since aggressive Mars is involved in the Arizona module, the support of the younger generation voters can tilt the balance in his favor.”
One half of the Romantic Realist, whose absentee ballot is long in, would like to believe too that this race is over. But, fortunately for him, he is an agnostic who isn’t about to believe that a Vaastu Shastra grid drawn in Bangalore (or one done in Shanghai, if you would rather go with the conceptually similar Feng Shui) is going to really get America its next president.
But, hey, who knows, maybe there is yet hope for the McCain-Palin ticket? Any Republicans out there looking for some divine (outsourced) intervention?