Wednesday, October 08, 2008
"Blue Planet"
If foreigners could vote, the global "electoral college" map would be almost entirely blue for Obama. Whether that is a feature or a bug is entirely up to you. Would President Obama be interested in his personal global approval ratings? It seems to me that even if you are the sort who wants America to be loved, you do not want a president who wants to be the personal object of that love. I am not saying that Obama does, but the European tour in the summer did nothing to dispel the possibility.
9 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Oct 08, 03:22:00 AM:
Proving there is no escaping CNN.
By 
Gordon Smith, at
Wed Oct 08, 10:16:00 AM:
I think we can agree that while "popularity" isn't a virtue, it's important that America be able to activate strong alliances quickly and effectively.
If the President of a foreign nation is asked to help us, but his constituents have a universal disdain for the American leader, then that President is less likely to help.
Winning hearts and minds means winning hearts and minds.
It is important. Losing so much stature over the last 6 years has been devastating.
By , at
Wed Oct 08, 11:13:00 AM:
Gordon,
If we (including GWB) have lost so much stature, how do you explain the recent elections in Germany and France? It seems that they turned away from the anti-American/anti-Bush leaders and elected those with a more pro-American message.
By Diane Wilson, at
Wed Oct 08, 12:48:00 PM:
Obama has abandonment issues. Serious abandonment issues - his father, his mother, and his step-father all abandoned him. The need for love and adoration are what's driving him, and there's not enough love and adoration in the entire world to fill that cavern.
Besides, nations don't have friends; they have common interests. Even if he could be satisfied, there's no way he's going to achieve all that world peace.
By Andrew X, at
Wed Oct 08, 02:29:00 PM:
Two points -
Further answer to Gordon, it is astonishing the complaints I hear about "America's stature" in the world from people who have spent the last thirty years doing everything they can to denigrate, undermine, and morally separate themselves from that very America. It is breathtaking to hear Hollywood types caterwaul about "Bush harming America's image", when it would not be hard for me to spend a few hours with IMDB and come up with a list of 500 (easy) films and shows that show the US government to be an evil enemy that our hero must struggle against. But of course, it, like all else, our bad image is all Bush's fault. Nothing whatsover to do with those the self-proclaimed wonderful people.
Secondly, searching for the diamond in the dung here, I do believe an Obama victory could provoke a Republican Renaissance. But more to the point here, maybe "the world" liked Jimmy Carter, even does now, but they could NOT have been shocked when Reagan handed his ass to him. They could see the score.
Maybe the world needs Obama to get over Obama, and much of the thinking that motivates their support for him. A "be careful what you wish for" situation, if you will.
I think Obama (if he wins) will be eminently beatable in 2012, and I think many people drooling over him around the planet may see why he willl be beatable at the same time. And we WILL have elected a blcak President, so stuff that in your pipes, America haters. Has Cuba done that?
The aftermath may have some great salutory potential.... assuming we survive it. =:-O
"God looks after drunks, little children, and the United States of America". -- Bismarck
By GreenmanTim, at
Wed Oct 08, 02:50:00 PM:
How did the rest of the "free" world respond to President Kennedy? I believe there was a similar appeal.
By Whiskey, at
Wed Oct 08, 04:29:00 PM:
How will America being "loved" by Europeans make Iran's nuke program go away? Oil and Gas globally cheaper? Jihad go away?
Answer: it won't. Just another failed attempt to create an easy out.
Securing America's interests and protecting her security is HARD. It requires periodically military force, whacking bad guys who are getting dangerous and making examples. Talk is BS.
Thinking you can hug-a-thug in Chicago or Iran to get them to stop killing people is both stupid and lazy.
By , at
Wed Oct 08, 05:29:00 PM:
I think anyone who runs for high office from either party has a huge ego and loves to be loved, regardless of where it's from. The ones who say they don't care what foreigners think of them are just using a psychological defense for their own egos.
Bush seems pretty happy with the support he receives in India and Poland.
By , at
Thu Oct 16, 09:49:00 PM:
I am laughing at the amateur pschoanalytical jump to not only diagnosing abandonment issues, but also wildly connecting it to a result to which it has no relevance.
No, popularity is not a virture, nor is it a solution to problems. But the global electoral vote map referenced is no more and no less a popularity measurement than is the U.S. national election.
The 2008 presidential election is a question with only two viable answers at this point in time. Given that, the odds of 6.8 billion people choosing incorrectly, sans the oddballs of Cuba, Georgia and Macedonia (all of which are only LEANING McCain), are statistically infinitesimal.
