World hopes for a 'less arrogant America'

World hopes for a 'less arrogant America'

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BERLIN (AP) -- A world weary of eight years of George W. Bush was riveted Tuesday by the drama unfolding in the United States. Many were inspired by Barack Obama's focus on hope, or simply relieved that - whoever wins - the current administration is coming to an end.

From Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to the small town of Obama, Japan, the world gears up to celebrate a fresh start for America.

In Germany, where more than 200,000 flocked to see Obama this summer as he moved to burnish his foreign policy credentials during a trip to the Middle East and Europe, the election dominated television ticker crawls, newspaper headlines and Web sites.

Hundreds of thousands prepared to party through the night to watch the outcome of an election having an impact far beyond America's shores. Among the more irreverent festivities planned in Paris: a "Goodbye George" party to bid farewell to Bush.

"Like many French people, I would like Obama to win because it would really be a sign of change," said Vanessa Doubine, shopping Tuesday on the Champs-Elysees. "I deeply hope for America's image that it will be Obama."

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Related News Links:
watchingamerica.com
watchingamerica.com
www.metimes.com
www.timesonline.co.uk

As this... the arguably single most important election in our lifetime draws to a close my interest drifts from the drama here at home and the way the rest of the world is viewing this. The above selection was from the AP but below are a selection of commentaries from around the world.

Two years. A billion dollars. Sixty million votes cast in the primary alone. An election that started out in a country scorched by the fierce heat of the Iraq war ending in the frigid reality of a once-in-a-generation economic slump. A contest that opened with the promise of the first woman president ending in the apparently inevitable elevation of the first black man to the White House.

There’s a paradoxically anticlimactic feeling about election days. All that effort, all that money expended around the clock for years in an effort to influence what happens on this day ends in a period of almost eerie silence.

www.timesonline.co.uk...

Americans will be voting for a new president this Tuesday, but the whole world will be watching, and holding its breath.

Indeed, the uniqueness of the U.S. presidential elections, as compared to those of other countries, is that the outcome of the race for the White House has a direct impact on the lives of millions of people from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, not forgetting the effect it carries on the people of the Middle East: Iraqis, Iranians, Syrians, Palestinians and Israelis among others.


The outcome of this Tuesday's election could well be the day that will change the future of the world.

by Barack Obama, the Democratic Party's candidate, will bring hope to the Middle East that relations with the United States will improve.

www.metimes.com...

There can be no doubt that today's American presidential election is historic.

We could see that the outcome gives the superpower its first female vice-president. Or the majority of American voters could send its first African-American to the White House.

The campaign has been intense and clarifying. It has been conducted in the shadow of a deep and serious financial crisis, and has left no doubt that the coming president will face challenges we have never seen before in modern times.

Barack Obama and John McCain are both well-qualified for the job. George W. Bush represented a political direction we were warned about in our part of the world. It has proven to be a timely warning.

watchingamerica.com...

The world has never paid so much attention to a single election. In one country after another, opinion polls show that the results of the American election tomorrow will become noted as a focal point.

Polls in Japan show that interest in the U.S. election is higher among Japanese people than among Americans. In Pakistan, interest in the first debate between the presidential candidates was so high that television stations had to change their schedules to immediately rebroadcast the debate twice. Because Obama has roots in Indonesia and Kenya, these countries feel that Obama should lead. In a few Kenyan high schools, students were assigned to write letters to the two American presidential candidates. Of the completed essays, 87% wrote to "Dear Barack Obama," the remainder going to McCain. In Vietnam, on the other hand, there is a lot of discussion surrounding John McCain. The American veteran has appeared here in the smoke. In Brazil, praise for Obama knows no limits: at least 8 recent political candidates have borrowed Obama's name for their own use. Last week, a representative of China's Foreign Ministry said, "We hope, and believe, that the winning candidate will pay attention to Chinese-American relations." The Xinhua News agency also quoted the point of view of Britain's Guradian newspaper--if the whole world were voting, Obama would be checking in to the White House.

watchingamerica.com...

It is simply amazing... its a cliche but it is still true... the world looks to America with hope when we try to live up to our ideals...

...and with fear and trepiditation when we don't.



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I could have titled this thread "A Farewell to Arms" but that's taken.

Despite the America first and foremost, love it or leave it crowd... we are an intricate part of the world economically, environmentally, militarily, politically and culturally... in short modern times cannot be explained or understood with out the American equation and nothing highlights this impact we have on the world than this election and the global fixation on it.

This same fixation also highlights the all but universal rejection of bush minor and his doctrine and policies.

Rarely has a man been so rejected globally.



[edit on 4-11-2008 by grover]

If its anything like past presidents in the last 200 years. The world is going to be disappointed. Obama if elected does not serve the world. He would be the President of the U.S. of A. Not the world. Go look somewhere else. Probably a French President or the British Prime Minister.

reply to post by deltaboy


I agree with the first part of your post but the president of the United States has far more gravity than any other comparable leader in the world, free or not and as such what he does or doesn't do has to be looked at globally.

The day of the nation state is drawing to a close and the quicker we understand that the better off we will be.

For people living in a fantasy of hollywood cr*p, america will still be killing and torturing people under obama, if he wins.

Amazing how ignorant people are, they think the president has all this power, to control things in america.

Well good grief, I hope for a less arrogant world, sheeese,

Nothing will change

Perhaps what the two of you say is true... that nothing will change but then who knows... where there is life there is hope.

And yes the president matters... just look at the direction bush minor hauled us.

Yes 9/11 would have probably still happened had Gore been selected but the response would have been more nuianced and less knee jerk beligerent.

Not to mention the fact that the invasion of Iraq and the whole Abu Graib and gitmo things would have never happened.

Personally from a UK stand point I'm sick of the last however months our news has had the US election at the top of the pile, and glad that after tonight hopefully when I watch the news it will be more concentrated on the country where I live and work and pay taxes

Ok thats off my chest.

I hope for America there is a change, but going by this site over the last two years or more when I have read posts like "hell yeah we will bomb the crap outta them" etc, from some of our American members of this site, well it kinda gives you the impression that the national way of thinking is shoot & kill first, ask questions later.

Before you chastise me, I do know that we have a great amount of American members here who would not and do not think that way, but those who do..............well their bells ring louder than yours in most posts.

Wolfie

Of course the Europeans want Obama to win. They believe they can "control" him, and that he will be a partner in Euriopesn attempts to make the entire world socialistic and unable to defend itself from aggressors.

I will make a prediction. If Obama is elected, he will not live one year. Some fanatic will either asisinate him, or the Muslims will blow up Washington.


But then again, this would also play right into the hands of the Europeans. They all just love their Muslims, who are working very hard to subordinate Europe.

And the Eurpoeans get attacked and bombed, and all they do is bend over, hand the Muslims a pot of grease and say, "Please, rape me again and again."

That is a throughly dispicable attitude. And it represents the worst of (some) Americans attitude about the world outside of our borders.

Arrogant America or spineless inexperienced president in the White House.
Those are two tough choices.

Does the US have an image problem? Yes. I think the problem is twofold. Political and Cultural.

Politically, Americans have always been arrogant. It is this arrogance that lead us to victory in WWI and WWII. This arrogance saved the world from tyranny then and will continue to protect our soil and that of our allies.

Culturally, we Americans a rather pathetic, whinny lot. American professional sports, the music industry, corporate culture, work ethic and Hollywood have all gone downhill and have created a culture of greed, laziness and entitlement like we have never seen before in this country. This aspect of our culture is embarrassing. Unfortunately, this aspect as the greatest influence on those who despise us and yet want to emulate what they see and read.

We need a cultural slap in the face.

Ya, D-boy, and you serve him (if you really are a delt). It's the special interest groups and the business of money that distracts them, I think.

He should maybe try to keep good relations and show a pretty smile overseas...but not when he has work to do here. The foreign government officials can come and visit here and have the public meeting televised, anyways. National relations shouldn't be another beauty queen contest but that is how things seem to go.

Originally posted by deltaboy
Obama if elected does not serve the world.

Yes, but George Bush has plundered much of it.

To many across the world, this is like the Nazi's leaving power in Germany or the fall of eastern European communism.

Most don't care what Obama would do if he got in, they just care that he carries the US differently so that the rest of the world are not watching worriedly while a powerful but violent and volatile nation does what it wants around the world.. like what the US has done for the last 8 years.

our "arrogance" won WWII and saved the world from tyranny? Hardly. Our greed helped PUSH WWII as we supplied both sides with weapons, oil, and steel to kill each other. Our "arrogance" helped push tyranny in places like south america, africa, and the middle east, as we install tyrants like the shah, suharto, and pinochet.

And i would say it is only our "arrogance" that claims we saved the world in WWII. Would the rest of the world be speaking german if not for the US? Perhaps, but then they would also be in the same straits if not for Brittain, if not for many other countries, and i think the largest part of the collapse of the german war machine was due to Russia. Without them we ALL would have lost the war.

If anything it is this "arrogance" that will bring the downfall of the nation, as it pushes terrorism to new heights, as it pushes south america to form the South american union to counter american predation there, as it pushes Russia, china, brazil, and India into a new bloc to counter western usury in asia.

It is said "those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad" but you can substitute "proud" or "arrogant" for mad in many cases.

Obama wreaks of arrogance and cockiness. Look at his swagger...look how he talks down to many people (including his own), but yet when he wins the world thinks they are going to see a less arrogant America? Give me a break.

The problem is that many Americans might want a change but many are rascist and even though they may be democrat voters they will not vote a black president in. And many believe if Obama gets in he will change everything but the reality is he would just be another puppet controlled by the power mad and super rich and the only thing the US people will get is more dirt to eat.

old medic, ignoring the obvious sickness of your post, i must point out that it is interventionism that begets terrorism, and the likelihood of continued and escalating terrorist type attacks would greatly increase under Mccain. Of course, as terrorism, defined as violence or threat of violence against civilian populations in order to alter government policy, is something regularly practiced by the US, i dont see any right of americans to point fingers of recrimination at muslims, as muslims hardly have the monopoly on terror.....the US being the only country in the world found guilty of terrorism by the world court.

I dont see arrogance or cockiness when i see obama. But i do see overweening greed and ambition when i look at mccain. keeping in mind i am not a mccain or obama supporter.

The president does NOT make the decisions. He cannot wage war. He cannot single-handedly do much of anything. Remember that the presidents actions require congressional approval.

Bush didnt invade Iraq on his own...he received approval for it.

Obama cannot fix everything on his own, he'll need approval for it.

Why do folks act like the president is solely responsible for everything good or bad? It doesnt work like that kids.