PrintSeptember 10, 2008
Foreign Columnist Bemoans Imminent Obama Demise
If one needed any more convincing that Barack Obama is not the man to lead America, this Jonathan Freedman article in the left wing Guardian will do the trick.
It seems that Mr. Freedman is depressed because the rest of the world is about to be denied their champion: Barack Obama:
But what of the rest of the world? This is the reaction I fear most. For Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by any American politician in living memory. Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that Obama would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. If November 4 were a global ballot, Obama would win it handsomely. If the free world could choose its leader, it would be Barack Obama.The crowd of 200,000 that rallied to hear him in Berlin in July did so not only because of his charisma, but also because they know he, like the majority of the world's population, opposed the Iraq war. McCain supported it, peddling the lie that Saddam was linked to 9/11. Non-Americans sense that Obama will not ride roughshod over the international system but will treat alliances and global institutions seriously: McCain wants to bypass the United Nations in favour of a US-friendly League of Democracies. McCain might talk a good game on climate change, but a repeated floor chant at the Republican convention was "Drill, baby, drill!", as if the solution to global warming were not a radical rethink of the US's entire energy system but more offshore oil rigs.If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.
Make no mistake. Freedland is saying that the reason the rest of the world wants Obama is because he will defer American interests in favor of bowing to the wisdom of "international institutions" (why liberals always use the plural when they mean one institution - the UN - is a mystery). Freedland - and the rest of the world - sense correctly that Obama would subsume American interests and allow the demonstrably anti-Americans at the UN to determine when it is alright for America to act in its own interests.
What Freedland and the rest of the world is tired of is America standing up for itself. Certainly international cooperation is important and McCain has made it more than clear that he wants to work with NATO and other organizations to advance the cause of freedom and support and defend America with the help of our friends.
And McCain is no dummy. He recognizes the importance of our relationship with China and Russia - two nations who we will be at odds with in some international arenas and cooperate in others.
But what McCain evidently won't do and what Obama promises is that the rest of the world gets a say in what is in America's vital interest. I have news for Freedland and the rest of you who might agree that this is a good thing; Americans don't elect presidents to look out for other nation's vital interests. They elect a president to defend our own. And if you don't like it, I suggest you come over here, become a citizen, and vote for someone who reflects your views. Do not sit in your comfy chair - a place made comfy by American power and benificience - and try and lecture us about what "the world" needs.
Finally, Freedland warns America that if we don't elect Obama, the rest of the world will throw a tantrum:
For America to make a decision as grave as this one - while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars - on the trivial basis that a hockey mom is likable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a lack of seriousness, a fleeing from reality, that does indeed suggest a nation in, to quote Weisberg, "historical decline". Let's not forget, McCain's campaign manager boasts that this election is "not about the issues."
Of course I know that even to mention Obama's support around the world is to hurt him. Incredibly, that large Berlin crowd damaged Obama at home, branding him the "candidate of Europe" and making him seem less of a patriotic American. But what does that say about today's America, that the world's esteem is now unwanted? If Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us - and, make no mistake, we shall hear it.
Ignorance of American politics is no excuse for this liberal. Presidential elections are never about issues. The reason Democrats lose consistently is that they are stupid enough to think so. The vote for president is the most personal civic decision any citizen makes. It is based much more on shared values and the ineffable quality of "comfort" that no one can define but nevertheless plays a big role in how people vote. People see a candidate's positions on the issues through this prism and make a determination of where they stand accordingly.
It is Obama's own fault that he is aloof and not as likable as McCain or Palin. It is his own fault that he has flip flopped so much on so many issues that no one trusts him. I suppose Obama can't help his own far left liberalism but to think that the American people don't take that into account is absurd. Obama has proven himself his own worst enemy in this campaign and for Freedland and other foreigners to imbue him with some kind of superhuman or out of the ordinary abilities only shows their towering ignorance of who Obama truly is and what he represents.
It is distressing that the world will be disappointed if we elect McCain as president. But it is the rest of the planet that must adapt to the situation and not the other way around. We should not and will not abandon our soveriegnty to please a bunch of elitist lefty twits with no more understanding of America and her politics than a three toed sloth.
And at least the sloth knows when to keep its mouth shut.
