The World is Glued to America’s Presidential Race
Picture this: Your community is being controlled by a shadowy secretive gang of outlaws. They walk all over your local government, your culture; they do exactly what they want when they want. It’s all about THEM. They're the center of the universe, and you're just a pawn on their chessboard. For the past seven years this gang has been worse than ever. But now you’ve heard that the gang’s current leader will have to step down in January 2009.
Several people — with different viewpoints and qualifications — are jockeying for this leadership position. All of these wannabes are keeping as much distance as possible between themselves and the current leader. They didn’t vote for him; they don’t know him; they don’t know anybody who voted for him or who can even stand him.
Whoever wins this political race, things have to be better in your community after the #$%&!#!$ gets replaced. Are you interested in this race? Damn right you are!
In the furthest reaches of the world, people are glued to our presidential campaign. How could they not be? It’s bad enough to have an 800-pound gorilla dominating the world. But since January 2001 this gorilla has been crazier, meaner and dumber than ever. Things just have to get better next year.
A senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said: “They feel there's a real chance to work with the U.S. America's image in the world is really on the line. Non-Americans are looking for someone who can restore faith in the United States."
A political scientist from the London School of Economics said: “
This article uses the term “Soft Power” to describe the worldwide power America, uh, used to have (not mentioning any names here). It’s too bad the author couldn’t think up a better name. Millions of knuckledraggers will have a field day with “huh huh huh huh huh huh what kind of wimp cares about Soft Power huh huh huh huh huh uh uh uh uh.”
Soft Power refers to the admiration and empathy the world used to have for America. It’s much easier to be persuasive with other countries if those countries respect your integrity and what you stand for. Lately, any time we try to “persuade” another country, they either laugh or they brace themselves for an invasion. Either way, more terrorists get recruited.
Whoever inherits the White House is gonna have one Godawful heaping putrid mess to clean up.
cross-posted at Bring It On!
Labels: Center for Strategic and International Studies, London School of Economics, soft power
posted by Tom Harper @ 8:22 PM
21 Comments:
I love the nameless photo. Still laughing.
The day that he leaves the clouds will part, the sun will shine, and the word will hold its breath for a moment while they wait to see if a human appears on the horizon to take his place. At our house we are going to have a "Bush be gone Bash"!
So much depends on the damage being undone - if the newly elected one hangs on to the ill-gotten power, it will be a very bad sign but better than Bush.
KWW: I can picture your description of when Bush finally leaves. It's like the end of a Stephen King novel: the town that spawned all the evil drowns in a massive flood, all the villains die a horrible death simultaneously, and then the sun comes out and the hero/heroinne whom everyone thought was dead, emerges smiling from the shadows.
I'm sure it won't be quite that dramatic, but still...I don't even care who takes Dumbya's place, it has to be a huge improvement. A cloud will lift.
On the surface it'll be an improvement, but what really bothers me is this air of 'let's move on.' Digby had a really good post the other day that captures my feelings: you MUST make these fuckers pay as much as possible because they'll just rise up again. Even the Mukasey shit the other day - the fact he still refuses to define torture/it's torture if it happens to me - we cannot afford to just move on, simply because there IS so much shit to clean up. And since no human could by the time 2012 rolls around, the evil fuckers come on back. The always do.
Randal: Absolutely make the fuckers pay. Then we can move on. We'd probably be able to get reparations from some people/groups and others will pull an Enron and fall through the cracks. It'll be interesting to see how many VIPs will do the Kenneth Lay "death" gimmick (i.e. get hustled away to a tropical villa somewhere for the rest of their lives).
I'm sure the rest of the world is hanging on this election like never before. And I just hope whoever wins the Presidency is able to fix what W broke...
Mauigirl: Yup, whoever inherits this mess is gonna have their work cut out for them. Bush has spent over 7 years vandalizing and desecrating the country. God knows how long it'll take his successor to clean up after him.
The replacements are very limited.
One is a deranged warloving old man, another is a warloving Iron Maiden, one is a slick haired slimeball, another is a follower of the Robertson/Dobson wing.
Looks like Obama is the best of the lot.
Larry: Obama is my first choice too. I think McCavein (as JR calls him) is the only Republican who has a chance. Huckabee pisses off the "Christian" Powers That Be by actually believing all that crap in the Bible about helping and caring. Romney is all over the map; he's taken every possible position on every issue at one time. And the family values drones will never vote for him since he's the wrong religion.
Here, here. I happen to think a lean, dark, man named Barack Hussein Obama is just the worldly figure to accomplish the cleanup of this mess. Good comments
You know I never thought about it but Larry has made a very good point Tom.
If McCain, who is too old became President. We can look to be in Iraq for years and bankrupt this country the way Russia did.
If Hillary is elected President, she would carry this war on as well, even though she talks about leaving Iraq. I do not believe her.
Romney flip flops so much, he reminds me of Bush and the lies he claim he never said or did.
Then there is Huckabee, the Bible Evangelical Preacher who has his order about how this world and this country should be ran.
Las but not least, there is Obama and I just do not know what to think of him besides the point that as others who have taken this job as President he has no kind of experience.
Let's Talk: It's true, McCain is 3 years older than Reagan was when he ran in 1980. But with millions of Boomers pushing 60, the public perception of "old" is different than it was 28 years ago. I don't want him in the White House but I don't think his age will be held against him.
It might be that Obama's lack of experience could actually be an advantage. Washington DC is so corrupt and paralyzed, maybe a complete outsider is what we need.
We have Hillary a megalomaniac(her words not mine), a minister who has no former training in a seminary, a half-dead maverick, a rich Mormon who's flip-flopped more than Hillary, and an African-American who moves people with words. Hmmm....I'll take the African American please, he's the lesser of all evils.
And I'm not voting for him because I'm a black woman but because Ted Kennedy appeared in my dreams and told me to.
Jo
Jo: Good description of the candidates. I agree Obama sounds like the best choice.
I was for Edwards until Obama got in the race and that was tough as Edwards has had better more spelled out ideas and solutions then any of the rest. The others started to grab his ideas afterwards and he still had the better solutions. I support Obama and I resent the feminist saying "it's either Hillary or the old boys club" a black man has NEVER been part of the old boys club and White Woman (though they have a glass ceiling) were never subjected to Jim Crow.
If you want to beat McCain just show a video of him walking. (I'm told) he is so stiff and old, he can barely move around.
Erik
Erik: True, Edwards had good ideas and was articulate. But I think his image was just too much to overcome. He's a trial lawyer and a multimillionaire, and the pundits were using that against him. And his pretty boy image -- rightwing nutcase bloggers refer to him as "Silk Pony" and "the Breck Girl," among other names.
Also, there seems to be an unwritten law that when somebody runs for president and doesn't make it, they're not gonna be president. All subsequent attempts will fail. Nixon is the one exception that I can think of.
Excellent idea -- a video of McCain walking and moving around. The "media" has been pretty cooperative in just showing pictures of his face. But there's always YouTube.
Yeah, it sure is time to clean out the ol' Honey Bucket, eh. Way PAST time!
Tuesday, January 20 wil be one of the greatest days in America's political history, provided the 800-pound simian is willing to allow things to occur according to schedule.
In order to make the bastards pay, we need to elect someone who will not be afraid to get things going in that direction. Do we have anyone in the current group who would do that? What do you think?
Jo, your comment is great!
I think Hilary might help get us out of Iraq, but not as soon as Obama might. I think there is so much money being made from the war that it would be hard to stop the politicians from feeding from such a huge gravy train. My thought is that it will come down to who puts the least value on money and the most value on human lives. I think Obama best fits that bill from what I have seen and heard so far.
A black man, part of "the old boys club"? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!! No "glass ceiling"? HAHAHAHAHHAHA!!! You just can't come up with that stuff!! Just kidding... it's sad, but things are looking up for people in our country who are more than just middle-aged-old white Christian males. Isn't it about time.
Snave: But this country was founded by middle-aged white Christian males, as God intended :)
Yup, the ol' honey bucket needs to be cleaned out. Or "draining the swamp" as Pelosi talked about but never did.
Obama is my first choice. But even Hillary or McCain (the only other 2 possibilities) would be a huge improvement over the Chimperor.
Bend over and kiss your ass g/by. None of them have any intention of cleaning up the mess Bush made. We're done...
Bunny: Well, I hope the post-Bush period will be better than that, but you never know.
Lesser of the evils is to vote for Obama? Come on. Haven't we learned anything over the past eight years? Would a company actually hire you let alone give you a job interview if you had no experience? I'd say not. But we'll rally around someone who is an inexperience, motivational speaker with no substance for the job of President of the United States! It's laughable. All he does is speak words of "change" and everyone falls over and says "Yahoo". What change? The man never says. The more he talks, the more he sounds like a preacher leading people down a path to... where? There have been many past elections where candidates have said the word "change" (remember Bush, Jr.) and look at the "change" we got. Eight years of total deception, hated by the world, indebted up to our eye balls! The only candidate I liked, and thought would do a wonderful job was Edward's. Unfortunately he never got any media coverage, and people never gave him a chance. This whole Obama movement amazes me. After eight years of utter brainwashing by the Bush administration, you'd think we be more choosy about who is the right candidate who can do the best job. A candidate who has experience, the strength and determination to get us back on the right road. Out of debt, out of war, and out of relying on foreign bailouts, among so many other things this president will need to work on. Obama's right when he says "change", unfortunately it may NOT be the change we were looking for. I say "If you think eight years with Bush, Jr. was bad, hang onto your hats my friends, cause the next four-eight is going to be a very bumpy ride.
Anonymous: I think our federal government has gotten so corrupt and self-contained, Obama's lack of experience might actually be an advantage.
A few years ago a local car dealer was running a Help Wanted ad for car salesmen. The one requirement was that the person have NO experience in car sales. They had some sort of "unique" training program and they only wanted people who weren't corrupted by previous car sales experience. I don't know how comparable that is, but it just seems like the more "experienced" a politician is, they better they'll fit in with the good old boy network, and we'll just be getting more of the same old shit.
As far as McCain and Hillary (the other 2 possibilities) are concerned, I could live with either one of them. I'd probably grit my teeth and vote for Hillary, but if McCain wins at least we'll have a president whose last name isn't Bush or Clinton, for the first time in 20 years.
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