Comments on: It’s a blue blue world

By: Crystal

Crystal — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:10:24 +0000

yep, people here in Malawi are also obsessed. a friend brought me an obama-biden sticker from home and i plan to plaster it to my clothes today.
yesterday at the university i was meeting with two (malawian) colleagues, both of whom had the blue/red map up on their computer screens…

By: ckelty

ckelty — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:49:50 +0000

I can’t see either poll as much more than some sophisticated Rorschach blot… but there are always some nice grains of truth, such as the overwhelming response from Palestine that the election doesn’t make a difference… it certainly doesn’t, for Palestine… though i don’t quite know why it certainly does for South Korea.

By: Strong

Strong — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:45:18 +0000

Thanks Rex, but I don’t think any of us were mistaking the Icelandic site for an ‘accurate’ picture of world opinion; it’s just another instance of global interest in the election.

By: Rex

Rex — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:27:52 +0000

Meh — I’m a little burned out on polls ‘for the entire world’ which are actually polls for ‘people with an Internet connection who can read English’. This is more accurate:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/gallup/

What I love about this poll is that of the top-10 pro-McCain countries, four are actually anti-McCain. It is just that they are LESS anti-McCain than the rest of the world. Meanwhile, India and China don’t care/aren’t telling.

By: kuznetchik

kuznetchik — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 03:33:06 +0000

“But all the grotesque racism and xenophobia that characterizes so much US political discourse, and that has structured the entire narrative arc of the Republican campaign”

???

By: Carl

Carl — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:51:15 +0000

Cruz, we tried lowering taxes on corporations and their shareholders over the last 8 years. With that money they did not proportionally invest in plant and equipment or create jobs. Instead they speculated in shady real estate loans and credit default swaps, a form of gambling that brought much larger returns in the short term with a disastrous downside we’re now seeing; cut real wages and expanded access to consumer debt to compensate, another gamble; and moved production overseas, where labor costs and workplace health and safety regulations were less expensive.

Alan Greenspan himself has recently admitted that he was wrong in assuming that banks would act in their long-term self-interest by investing prudently. In short, the belief that free markets will self-regulate for the common good has proven, yet again, to be delusional.

By the way, I have a house, and it’s insured, but I couldn’t tell you how many other people took out insurance on my house or how many times its value would need to be payed out if it burned down, because those are over-the-counter transactions (also known as side bets) and unregulated.

By: L.L. Wynn

L.L. Wynn — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:16:05 +0000

I’m not saying it’s the end of racism in the U.S., I’m just saying it is a symbol that things have gotten better!

By: MTBradley

MTBradley — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:16:08 +0000

“But what is exciting about this election is what it means symbolically. That an African-American could be the president in a country where only a few decades ago, it took military force to ensure that little black kids could go to school, and people were attacked by dogs and beaten back by hoses just because they wanted to make it possible for black people to vote. That maybe Americans are finally coming around to reject Bush’s war-mongering, and the disastrous humanitarian and economic consequences that it has had.”

Does it really say much about America that it is going to have an African-American leader? The fact that Fulgencio Batista wasn’t white didn’t mean there was an enlightened view of race on his watch.

And while I do find McCain a bit of a warmonger I am also perturbed that the discourse calling for a withdrawal of the US military from Iraq tends to justify itself by making a reference to “Iraqi ingratitude.” That just sounds like a euphemism for, “We wash our hands of them” to me.

By: Derick

Derick — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:42:24 +0000

It’s interesting to see that one of the closest “races” (for which the numbers might be approaching anything close to statistical significance) is in Venezuela. I have heard several immigrants from Latin America, including a Venezuelan last night, comparing Obama adversely to Chavez & other populist “cult of personality” types (actually heard an elderly holocaust survivor making similar comparisons to Hitler).

McCain also seems v. strong in Eastern Europe (Poland, Macedonia, Czech Republic, Albania). It could all be sampling error but it looks like a pattern.

South Africa, on the other hand, has Obama with a 2177-0 lead!

By: L.L. Wynn

L.L. Wynn — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:13:56 +0000

You know what, Cruz, I think that Strong’s and Gretchen’s and my “gushing” lies less in the promises that Obama makes than in the symbolism. I’d like to think that Obama will go out and NOT MAKE enemies, instead of either defeating or pandering to anyone, and I’d like to imagine that he can sort of the economy and give money and healthcare benefits and such to the people who DESERVE it, i.e. THE POOR, not just the middle class. BUT I am a realist and not so naive as to suppose that Obama will suddenly make a huge difference. I suspect that the US will continue to go about screwing things up all over the world, because that’s what superpowers do. But what is exciting about this election is what it means symbolically. That an African-American could be the president in a country where only a few decades ago, it took military force to ensure that little black kids could go to school, and people were attacked by dogs and beaten back by hoses just because they wanted to make it possible for black people to vote. That maybe Americans are finally coming around to reject Bush’s war-mongering, and the disastrous humanitarian and economic consequences that it has had.

And good grief, what in the world makes you think that Strong or anyone else who votes for a Democrat is just a young person who has no mortgage and doesn’t pay taxes? Did you say ‘naivety’??

By: Cruz Overbrook

Cruz Overbrook — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:39:02 +0000

“…Obama seeks to collectivize state industry and distribute wealth democratically while also ruling via a cult of personality and an authoritarian grip on government… oh wait, that’s Sarah Palin.”

No, you had it right the first time.

Interesting snapshot, though. As a Washington Redskins fan, I am fully supporting Brad Johnson over Tony Romo to quarterback the Dallas Cowboys for the rest of the season. Of course the rest of the world loves Obama. He’s entertaining. And they’re bored of W because he doesn’t listen to their complaints with enough solicitude.

Your gushing commentary feels a bit “academic” in it’s naivety. Once you get a mortgage, pay taxes, and get a few years older, you’ll understand that raising taxes on corporations and those making over $250K a year reduces the number of jobs for the middle class, that most Americans don’t want their wealth redistributed to those who don’t deserve it, and that defeating your enemies is more important than pandering to them.

This is the difference between Republicans and Democrats, and indeed between Americans and most Europeans, regardless of where you’re reading your news from.

By: gretchen

gretchen — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:09:56 +0000

Also, Strong: “Mainline Eisenhower Republican” TOTALLY, AND TOTALLY FUNNY. On point, as always.

By: gretchen

gretchen — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:08:46 +0000

People here (Dakar) are obsessed too! My students all want to talk about Obama, all the time. Older people I know, those who have been in the US especially, are very, very worried about the possibility of assassination. My one Lebanese colleague (an older gentleman) is sure that “the American will never elect a BLACK!”

But I am with you and LL: I can think of nothing but the election. I watch CNN, then BBC, then Euronews, France 24, and then back to CNN.

I should note that information about the election–most of it quite accurate–is all over the news and popular press here. The general sentiment is that everyone here in Dakar has dreamed about the day that a person of African descent would would be in the White House. No one can believe they have lived to see it. Watching, waiting, cynicism….