Saturday, January 26, 2008

US Campaign Recieves Much Attention Overseas

Many people worldwide are going to be affected by the outcome of the 08 election because America has so much influence in the world. That is why so many people are following the campaign from overseas. The campaign is also getting much attention because it is going to be possibly the first black president or first female president.

"The personalities of the Democratic contest in particular — the potential
harbinger of America’s first African-American or female president — have
fascinated outsiders as much as, if not more than, the candidates’ policies on
Iraq, immigration or global finances."


But all the attention the US election is getting is not necessarily for good reasons.

"“There is a desperate sense of need that there must be something better
than Bush out there,” said Dean Godson, head of a conservative research group in
London called Policy Exchange. Or, as Thomas Valasek, a spokesman for the Center
for European Reform in London, put it: “The world at large has a massive stake
in the outcome of the elections. Never before has the U.S. had such a terrible
reputation, a terrible image.”"

"As Ramesh Thakur, a political science professor in India, wrote: “We
foreigners can but pray that the new president, whoever he or she may be, will
return America to its strengths, values and the tradition of exporting hope and
other optimism. And so help to lift America and the world up, not tear one
another down.” "


As we can see, alot of people around the world are expecting change to come to America. There are, however people out there who dont give this election any more attention than any other US election.

"But in the Philippines some displayed less concern, even with the Obama-Clinton
race. “In the past we always have two white men talking about strange policies,”
said Alex Magno, 53, a political science professor at the University of the
Philippines. “But probably if they get elected it will be the same as the old
white men who contested the elections before.”"


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22849633/

4 comments:

Kristina McOmber said...

So, this post reminds me of a conversation i had today about some politics. This boy was arguing that Clinton was far more qualified for the presidency, and, in his argument, the presidency NEEDED Clinton, because of her decades of experience with foreign policy and other countries, as opposed to Obama, who is "merely a symbol" for "change he refuses to define". So, yeah, foreign policy is one of the greatest issues that whoever is elected president will have to face- to bring about change like environmental protection, weapons destruction, education for children, and medicine for the impoverished. Just hope that Obama is up to it =)

Anonymous said...

How does clinton have decades of foreign policy experience?

benji said...

she lived with a 2-term president for a while, supposedly. though he might have been too busy with other things to teach her about foreign policy.

Ryan Landis said...

Well the biggest question I have is what happens if Hillary or Obama behaves just like the former "white presidents" who everyone in the world seemed to hate? Come on, a president be it a white/black/latin/asian/female/male or whatever is not going to act so drastically different than every other president, because if they were going to they would not get elected. However I will say much can be seen in difference between Republican and Democrats. And to talk about the world following this election, they always have and they always will. In great times the world will want to keep them that way, and in horrible times they will follow them too. This election is no different than any other in the eyes of the world besides that there are new candidates.