The world's verdict will be harsh if the US rejects the man it yearns for )I ewmind people, I will show both sides djf_

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk>
Date: September 10, 2008 5:15:02 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: The world's verdict will be harsh if the US rejects the man  
it yearns for

Dave:

Here is a column from a respected columnist, Jonathan Friedland, in  
today's (UK) Guardian, giving a transatlantic view of the US election  
- just in case you want it for IP.

cheers

Brian



> . . .
> Look at yesterday's opinion polls, which have John McCain either in  
> a dead heat with Obama or narrowly ahead. Given the well-documented  
> tendency of African-American candidates to perform better in polls  
> than in elections - thanks to people who say they will vote for a  
> black man but don't - this suggests Obama is now trailing badly.  
> More troubling was the ABC News-Washington Post survey which found  
> McCain ahead among white women by 53% to 41%. Two weeks ago, Obama  
> had a 15% lead among women. There is only one explanation for that  
> turnaround, and it was not McCain's tranquilliser of a convention  
> speech: Obama's lead has been crushed by the Palin bounce.
>
> So you can understand my pessimism. But it's now combined with a  
> rising frustration. I watch as the Democrats stumble, uncertain how  
> to take on Sarah Palin. Fight too hard, and the Republican machine,  
> echoed by the ditto-heads in the conservative commentariat on talk  
> radio and cable TV, will brand Democrats sexist, elitist snobs,  
> patronising a small-town woman. Do nothing, and Palin's rise will  
> continue unchecked, her novelty making even Obama look stale, her  
> star power energising and motivating the Republican base.
>
> . . .
>
> But what of the rest of the world? This is the reaction I fear most.  
> For Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by  
> any American politician in living memory. Polling in Germany,  
> France, Britain and Russia shows that Obama would win by whopping  
> majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle  
> East and Latin America. If November 4 were a global ballot, Obama  
> would win it handsomely. If the free world could choose its leader,  
> it would be Barack Obama.
>
> The crowd of 200,000 that rallied to hear him in Berlin in July did  
> so not only because of his charisma, but also because they know he,  
> like the majority of the world's population, opposed the Iraq war.  
> McCain supported it, peddling the lie that Saddam was linked to  
> 9/11. Non-Americans sense that Obama will not ride roughshod over  
> the international system but will treat alliances and global  
> institutions seriously: McCain wants to bypass the United Nations in  
> favour of a US-friendly League of Democracies. McCain might talk a  
> good game on climate change, but a repeated floor chant at the  
> Republican convention was "Drill, baby, drill!", as if the solution  
> to global warming were not a radical rethink of the US's entire  
> energy system but more offshore oil rigs.
>
> If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the  
> rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush- 
> Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.
>
> Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much  
> misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti- 
> Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if McCain  
> wins in November, that might well change. Suddenly Europeans and  
> others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling  
> clique, but Americans themselves. For it will have been the American  
> people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a- 
> generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is  
> yearning for.
>
> And the manner of that decision will matter, too. If it is deemed to  
> have been about race - that Obama was rejected because of his colour  
> - the world's verdict will be harsh. In that circumstance, Slate's  
> Jacob Weisberg wrote recently, international opinion would conclude  
> that "the United States had its day, but in the end couldn't put its  
> own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race".
>
> Even if it's not ethnic prejudice, but some other aspect of the  
> culture wars, that proves decisive, the point still holds. For  
> America to make a decision as grave as this one - while the planet  
> boils and with the US fighting two wars - on the trivial basis that  
> a hockey mom is likable and seems down to earth, would be to convey  
> a lack of seriousness, a fleeing from reality, that does indeed  
> suggest a nation in, to quote Weisberg, "historical decline". Let's  
> not forget, McCain's campaign manager boasts that this election is  
> "not about the issues."
>
> Of course I know that even to mention Obama's support around the  
> world is to hurt him. Incredibly, that large Berlin crowd damaged  
> Obama at home, branding him the "candidate of Europe" and making him  
> seem less of a patriotic American. But what does that say about  
> today's America, that the world's esteem is now unwanted? If  
> Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible  
> message to the rest of us - and, make no mistake, we shall hear it.

Full article at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/10/uselections2008.barackobama
--
School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell




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