Calling UK/EU Members-What do the US Elections mean to Us?

Originally posted by Maxmars
From here in the US; our media seems to indicate that most of you support (or would prefer) Senator Obama win the Presidential election.

In general it also appears that the EU is so inclined.

Out of curiosity..., how does your local political or governmental leadership say they see it?

The British govt would never comment on another country's elections, especially before the vote. Its hard if not impossible to gauge who they would prefer.

Originally posted by candyfloss
I don't understand how you could find Obama lumpen though?

He comes across as your typical career politician- He'll say anything to get elected. Yes, Obama has a great deal of suaveness about him but the messiah complex puts me off.

Originally posted by Maxmars
From here in the US; our media seems to indicate that most of you support (or would prefer) Senator Obama win the Presidential election.

In general it also appears that the EU is so inclined.

Out of curiosity..., how does your local political or governmental leadership say they see it?

Most Brits, I think, would not agree that McCain was better qualified to be POTUS on the basis of being shot down and imprisoned during the Vietnam War. But I could be wrong.

It's all cultural differences of course - Brits are just baffled why abortion, guns and God are so important. I can understand the gun thing as it's part of the Bill of Rights and therefore goes to the heart of your country.

No one goes to church here and even less people own guns. Any politician who stood up here and started banging on about Jesus would probably be sectioned. Which is ironic as the UK has a state religion and the USA is a secular state.

Originally posted by infinite

Originally posted by candyfloss
I don't understand how you could find Obama lumpen though?

He comes across as your typical career politician- He'll say anything to get elected. Yes, Obama has a great deal of suaveness about him but the messiah complex puts me off.

Hmmm, now you mention it, the parallels between Obama and Blair are disturbingly similar.

Originally posted by candyfloss
reply to post by Saoirse

 

That's interesting ,Ron Paul has alot of support .Can you tell us why?I'll miss Bush and his Bushim's.His speech about humans and fish living together in peace restored my faith in humanity.
Ireland for Obama-cool.

The fish quote is a classic

Ron Paul's popularity mainly comes from his foreign policy of non-intervention, having military compounds spread all over the world spreads fear instead of security and in turn creates enemies. Also his views on free trade (not capitalism) and the federal reserve are bang on. With a bit of luck we will see him in office in 2012
:

Obama does come across to be a genuine and caring person but the changes he proposes to bring (positive they are) just dont cover the cause of the problems, but he does seem to have the makings of decent president.

And poor old McCain, i think some of the support he attracted really done harm to his chances, and i will never understand the appointment of Palin. But after seeing Ron Paul destroy him at the earlier debates really set the view he hasnt got what it takes.

I think it will mean how quickly we become involved in another war.
Mccain gets in then time isnt an issue.
Obama gets in then bush will use his remaining time to push on iran,syria or pakistan.
Its a lose / lose situation imo

Originally posted by cropmuncher
I think it will mean how quickly we become involved in another war.
Mccain gets in then time isnt an issue.
Obama gets in then bush will use his remaining time to push on iran,syria or pakistan.
Its a lose / lose situation imo

Lets hope Bush just quietly sits the clock out and doesn't do anything silly.

[edit on 31-10-2008 by Dan.Dare]

i have to agree with Infinite ,Obama does have that certain air about him.Dan points out the cultural differences (and contradictions) well.I'm geeting the feeling from some posters that US election doesn't mean much at all really and may even open up a window for potential conflict.Who knows really?We can only speculate,althought the RAND corporation info thats come out of China is a tad worrying as we know from experience (again )governments are capable of this.Again ,we have to ask which candidate could deal with international conflict /crisis?

blogs.mirror.co.uk...

Fuuny thing about someone bored by the elctins and compares English Cities to US ones

Originally posted by Maxmars
From here in the US; our media seems to indicate that most of you support (or would prefer) Senator Obama win the Presidential election.

In general it also appears that the EU is so inclined.

Out of curiosity..., how does your local political or governmental leadership say they see it?

Generally politicians don't express a view one way or the other, since they'll have to work with whoever wins and don't like burning bridges.

The Mayor of London (Boris Johnson) has expressed support for Obama though.

reply to post by mattpryor



www.boris-johnson.com...-524

there you go,quite witty actually & scathing..good old Boris..ping pong is coming home

American elections mean a lot to us, because if the last couple of decades have been any indication, American foreign policy tends to have a big domino effect, particularly when countries have a 'special relationship' with America. So elections are important on that level no matter who actually gets in.

As to who I'd like to win. I'd like Obama to win, if only in hoping that those of his detractors who have more problem with the colour of his skin than his actual politics are driven to into an apoplectic rage at the result and end up shooting themselves or something.

reply to post by Dan.Dare


The Democrats have even based their election machine and policies on pre-1997 New Labour. How do I know this? Gordon Brown stupidly confirmed it at a news conference - which didn't please the Obama camp.

PETER HITCHENS: The Zombie and the Third-World Marxist ... How the American West views the presidential race
From PETER HITCHENS in Moscow, Idaho
Last updated at 10:11 PM on 01st November 2008

Comments (0) Add to My Stories
They tell me that about one person in 50 on the streets of Moscow, Idaho, is legally carrying a concealed pistol. A lot more have them in their cars. I rather approve of this, though I don't think I'll join in.
Many of those packing heat are women combining a hard, practical feminism with a conservative view of the right to bear arms.
The important thing is that you don't know who is armed and who isn't, and nor do potential rapists and muggers. I am sure this arrangement improves everyone's manners no end.
It is certainly a very polite place and shoot-outs here are a good deal rarer than they are in gun-controlled London or Manchester.
Armed with words: Peter Hitchens on a visit to a Moscow gun store

As America approaches her most momentous presidential election for decades, I am in the True (but not specially Wild) West, the top left-hand corner of the United States, a hard-core Republican state that most visitors only fly over.
They think it's dull. How wrong they are.
This extraordinary, divided little city, enfolded in low, fertile hills, is America in miniature - split down the middle, Left versus Right, Christian versus secular, gun-owner versus gun-hater, abortion advocate versus big-family home-schooling Bible-walloper, cyclist versus gas-guzzler, Obama versus McCain - and some interesting stations both in between and beyond.
Some local liberals fear that a powerful Calvinist Church plans to turn Moscow into America's version of Iran's Holy City of Qom.
All around, in the farm and logging countryside, self-sufficient, taciturn men in pick-up trucks would rather have a head-on collision with a freight train than vote for Barack Obama.
Out in the forests and the fields of wheat, peas and lentils, Democrats are so rare they ought to be a protected species.
In Moscow - which is actually named after Moscow, Pennsylvania, not the one in Russia - there is at least a more or less evenly matched argument. But it is mostly a dialogue of the deaf.
The great Obama cult that has engulfed the Left is a sinister mystery to the other side. The Left regard their devout neighbours as glowering, fanatical ayatollahs. Yet they pass each other daily in the street, share the city council and, when the liberals aren't boycotting the conservatives, buy from each other's stores.
Well, up to a point.
From the well-stocked firearm shop on the Pullman Road, which sells everything you might need for hunting elk, felling burglars or discouraging rapists, it is a surprisingly short distance to the excellent French restaurant on Main Street, which confusingly just happens to be run by an Evangelical Christian pastor and superb cook.
The two businesses share few clients. Rigs with gun racks tend not to be clustered here but near the burger and Mexican joints further out.
On a rise overlooking the city stands this Moscow's Kremlin, the almost wholly Left-liberal University of Idaho, a tree-girt fortress of Obama-worship and political correctness. You can be pretty sure that nobody up there is carrying anything deadlier than a Marxist theory.
This institution's advertising slogan used to be: 'You can go anywhere from here.' Which is quite funny because the student who went furthest from here was Sarah Palin, the Lipsticked Pitbull herself.
And the university, which you might think would rejoice in this success, is rather quiet and shifty about her. I asked to interview the university president about his distinguished journalism-school graduate and he was politely unavailable.
Battle lines: Obama and McCain polarise opinion to a degree that is extraordinary even for America

But one student paraded through town last week with a placard declaring 'Sarah Palin, embarrassing Idaho University since 1987', which I suspect is a more candid expression of what the liberal professors think.
Roy Atwood, once a senior lecturer at the university, recently defected to take charge of the rival, highly conservative New St Andrew's College. He says: 'My guess is that the university is deeply embarrassed, even though she is the most important person ever to have emerged from there.'
As it happens, Roy Atwood is also the only person in Moscow who can even faintly recall the future Sarah Barracuda when she was plain Sarah Heath - he was her academic adviser.
He admits he cannot remember much. She showed few signs of what was

for the rest of the article see The Mail on Sunday,today 2nd November,An intelligent and well thought out article not patronising and worth a read.It's worth looking at just to see the sign'Your wife said it was ok for you to buy a gun today'and intruiging photo of Sara Palin who attended the local university at the town in Idaho hitchens is writing about.

Don't you just love Boris!

I do believe the choice of candidate in this election will have a huge impact on the rest of the world. For as long as I can remember the US has used its troops to impose its will on any country that stepped out of line, the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan being clear demonstrations of this.

So which candidate do you think is most likely to continue this terrible and destructive policy.

On one hand we have McCain (as stated by our dear friend Boris) singing "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" to the lilting strains of a Beach Boy tune -
And on the other we have Obama in Germany talking of tearing down walls and barriers, getting rid of racial and religious hatred, and working together to bring about peace and tolerance.

Bit of a no brainer really.

Cheers

Obama is winning big in a readers poll in the Daily Mirror.Looks like Brits are www.mirror.co.uk...

Only 24 hours to go and we can all return to sanity. Sorry for my lack of enthusiasm, but US politics is difficult to find riveting and stimulating. The bias electoral system maintains the status quo -red or blue- and my intuition states it will never change.

reply to post by candyfloss


Daily Mirror isn't representative of the United Kingdom's population. Majority of their readers lack basic English and the ability to understand big words.

That newspaper finds the celebrity culture more important than world news.

Well Infinite I was trying to give a representation of the UK as a whole and since the Daily Mirror is still in business I can only assume it has readers.Readers that were invited to vote for Mc Cain or Obama.Interestingly ,Obama was winning by a rather large percentage las time I looked.
Personally I love American politics and always find election time really exciting and try and stay awake throught the night as the results come in.
Interestingly looking at The Sun today an X Factor winner gives her opinion on how she thinks Obama will give hope to black youth in Britain.

www.thesun.co.uk...


ForLoena Lewis on Obama and www.mirror.co.uk... in the Mirror poll Obama vote continues to rise while Mc Cain diminishes.