Saturday - August 30, 2008

Obama makes history but doubts remain .  And the euro-peons are in love with him.

All things considered, if the europukes love him he’s wrong for America!  Period.

This is the editorial comment in this morning’s Telegraph.
Some of the comments by ppl who think they know us (USA) because they’ve read Mao’s little red book or Marx can stick it. They really get to me. I shouldn’t read that far down.  see link and scroll for comments.

The editorial spells out just why our presidential election is so important to ppl on this side of the world.  I grudgingly understand and concede their reasoning may be valid.  But it still bothers me that foreigners are working (on both sides) for ppl running for our highest office.

Obama makes history but doubts remain
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 30/08/2008

For all that it was a foregone conclusion; for all the flowery rhetoric and talk of “change”; and despite the extravagant stage management, the nomination of the first African-American to be a candidate for the White House was a moment of historical significance. Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency, dismissed as fanciful just 18 months ago, is heavy with symbolism. He launched his campaign in Springfield, Illinois, the capital of the state he represents in the Senate and the home town of Abraham Lincoln, one of America’s most revered figures. His speech accepting the Democratic nomination was delivered exactly 45 years to the day after Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech before the Lincoln Memorial, following a civil rights march through Washington. This coincidence was a demonstration of how far America has come since 1963; it also raised the question of whether it has come far enough to elect a black man to the White House. Like it or not, that will be an issue in the weeks leading to polling day in November.

So, too, in view of John McCain’s surprise - and potentially shrewd - choice of Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, to be his Republican running mate, will the other issue that came to the fore in the Democratic race: the prospect of a woman president. At 72, Mr McCain will be the oldest candidate ever to run for the White House, so there is a heightened chance that his vice-president might succeed him while in office. The choice of Mrs Palin, a hard-working mother of five, might appeal to the supporters of Hillary Clinton, who will never be reconciled to the upstart who supposedly stole her presidency.

At the Democratic convention in Denver, the Clintons were unequivocal in their public support for Mr Obama, whatever their private disappointment and misgivings. It was Mr Obama’s task in his keynote address to reach beyond the party and explain what an Obama presidency would look like. To be frank, we are no clearer. His delivery was mercifully shorn of much of the blowhard oratory to which he easily succumbs. But the staging was excessively glitzy, reminiscent of the hubristic rally at Sheffield in 1992 which helped to cook Neil Kinnock’s goose: it may play well with the party faithful but, to us on this side of the Atlantic at least, is simply cringe-making.

Mr Obama does not need to persuade the British of his suitability for office, since we do not have a vote. However, we have a powerful interest in the diplomatic, economic and moral acumen of the occupant of the White House. We have seen in the past year how America’s debt crisis has helped engineer a recession here, so we need to be clear that Mr Obama’s economic policies will not make matters worse and he has given welcome signals, especially on the tax front. Over the past month, the world has become more dangerous, with the Russian invasion of Georgia reminding us all that geo-political instability did not end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. How would Mr Obama, with no foreign policy experience and untested in times of trouble, cope with an international crisis? He addressed this in his speech, pointing out that Roosevelt and Kennedy showed there was nothing inherently weak in Democratic presidencies. These are risky comparisons to make.

Mr McCain, who will formally accept his party’s nomination at the Republican convention in Minneapolis next week, has portrayed his adversary as lacking experience, gravitas or any of the qualities needed in an uncertain world. In truth, we are as much in the dark about Mr McCain. Unquestionably, the selection of the two candidates has been a riveting spectacle. But we need to know a lot more about both of them between now and November 4.

http://tinyurl.com/6zsx55

Posted by Drew458     on 08/30/2008 at 10:51 AM   
Filed Under: • International • Politics •  
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