All quotes are from the Guardian article:
The world's verdict will be harsh if the US rejects the man it yearns for
An America that disdains Obama for his global support risks turning current anti-Bush feeling into something far worse
Shakin' in my boots, Mr. Freedland. Shakin' in my boots.
The feeling is familiar. I had it four years ago and four years before that: a sinking feeling in the stomach. It's a kind of physical pessimism which says: "It's happening again. The Democrats are about to lose an election they should win - and it could not matter more."
Well, obviously if you've had this feeling twice before, you were dead wrong about how "...it could not matter more.", now, weren't you? So, perhaps you ought to reassess the situation.
In my head, I'm not as anxious for Barack Obama's chances as I was for John Kerry's in 2004 or Al Gore's in 2000. He is a better candidate than both put together, and all the empirical evidence says this year favours Democrats more than any since 1976.
Isn't Obama BEHIND where those two were at this point in the campaign?
So you can understand my pessimism. But it's now combined with a rising frustration. I watch as the Democrats stumble, uncertain how to take on Sarah Palin. Fight too hard, and the Republican machine, echoed by the ditto-heads in the conservative commentariat on talk radio and cable TV, will brand Democrats sexist, elitist snobs, patronising a small-town woman. Do nothing, and Palin's rise will continue unchecked, her novelty making even Obama look stale, her star power energising and motivating the Republican base.
Yeah, it really sucks for the Republicans to have done your bit better than you do, huh? But hey, Democrats have been playing the "untouchable" card since pretty early on in this election, so that must mean it's okay, right?
If Sarah Palin defies the conventional wisdom that says elections are determined by the top of the ticket, and somehow wins this for McCain, what will be the reaction? Yes, blue-state America will go into mourning once again, feeling estranged in its own country. A generation of young Americans - who back Obama in big numbers - will turn cynical, concluding that politics doesn't work after all.
But it would be just FINE if red-state America has to deal with such an outcome in the case of an Obama win - after all, they're just red-staters, right? Their politics SHOULDN'T work? Their cynicism and estrangement don't matter, right?
And, most depressing, many African-Americans will decide that if even Barack Obama - with all his conspicuous gifts - could not win, then no black man can ever be elected president.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Bold words. STIRRING words. Words that MEAN something, that are IMPORTANT. But not words that are particularly relevant, apparently, as compared to the prospect of getting a black man elected to the Presidency, regardless of the content of his character - or his political platform. I saw comments to this effect a few months ago, people of African descent saying "Y'know, I'm a Republican, and I believe in my party's platform - but by God, I might just vote for Obama just because he's got dark skin and a decent shot at the White House." WTF?!? If you turn that around, so that a Democrat is singing the praises of John McCain because of his lack of melanin pigmentation, you couldn't hear yourself THINK over the screams of "RACISM!!!!1!" - with some justification, I think. Why was there no notice taken of these comments, no one in the media, say, pointing out the blatant racism, the whole-hearted abandonment of Dr. King's dream, when black leaders made those comments?
Guess "character" doesn't mean all that much after all.
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.
Tell ya what, guys - when this is all over and done with, you can HAVE him.
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.
Feel free to include us out the next time you have some sort of internal strife or natural disaster you'd like our help dealing with, then. So far, you've been screaming at us for wrongly being "the world's policemen", and screaming at us for failing to do enough in that outside-appointed task, as well. Some of us over here are getting more than a little tired of you ungrateful bastards trying to have it both ways.
Of course I know that even to mention Obama's support around the world is to hurt him.
Then why'd you write this rant, anyways, Jon?
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?
I forget, did France, Spain, Germany, the UK, any of the nations of Europe, care what U.S. opinion of their leaders was? Did those nations, those peoples, actively seek out the approval of residents of the United States when they were holding their own elections? Do they care about our opinions about their sitting leaders and their actions? No? Then why on Earth do you imagine that we should care about YOUR opinion of OUR election, OUR leader?
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.
Good - saves you a trip to the audiometry booth, I guess.
