McCain is about as popular as Bush in the eyes of the international community. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7606100.stm .
I think it matters what the world thinks. Whether we like it or not, we are not always going to be the big bully on the playground (see China, which already owns massive amounts of our debt and graciously continues to lend to us; see India), and we may actually one day need to forge relationships with governments and emerging markets in order to stay relevant. No one likes a bully. They only tolerate the bully because he's bigger and stronger. Meanwhile, they wait ... Then one day the other kids catch up, and that's a good day for those kids -- especially if the bully didn't wise up at some point, notice he's not so big anymore, and start making friends. The voiceless victims can start gleefully and mercilessly kicking the shit out of him. Obama is not a bully. McCain is ("bully" by the way, also means "coward"). Why people around the world see that and half of Americans don't, is another discussion ... But if we're smart, and can see beyond immediate cowboy gratification ("I'll put a boot in your ass") we'll try someone who's not a bully before the other kids hit puberty.
what the masses think IS irrelevant.. the leaders of the world dont care what there people think any more than ours do. the masses have always had a opinion and it hasnt changed the way there leaders deal with us before.. it wont now.. its meaningless what they think..
Letting the opinion of foreigners about our candidates influence one's vote?? That sounds like letting the French fondness for Jerry Lewis and the German liking of David Hasselhoff influence one's entertainment choices.
The funny thing is that the US forces the rest of the world to listen to them, but the American citizens don't care what foreigners think. The US acts as self appointed world police doing what they want to whom ever they want. They pass laws that effect people in other countries. So what foreigners think has an affect on what they think of your "USA #1" mentality. You no who else thought they were the best in the world? The only other country in the world where the citizen must pledge allegiance to there country, you guess it NAZI germany. When the US stops trying to run the world then you can say who cares what foreigners think. Untill that happens fuck off.
see thats just it. i dont think most americans see us as "the best in the world". thats a notion others have of us not what we think.. that in and of itself is enough to cause most americans not to care what the rest of the world thinks...
I always like your thoughts, hippie, but that last one doesn't make sense to me: A) Most Americans don't think we're the best in the world B) People in other countries think that we think we're the best in the world. C) Therefore, most Americans don't care what people in other countries think about whom we should elect president. I might be misinterpreting you, though. Don't want to put words in your mouth ... I just worry that, when (not if) we stop being all-powerful, the anti-american sentiment that our current leaders have nurtured around the world will be so strong that potential leaders in dangerous countries will start winning power -- campaigning solely on anti-american agendas. Just like we elect xenophobes who pick on weaker countries, they'll start electing xenophobes who promise to boycott American commerce, attack our citizens, etc. Electing McCain will just be more proof to them that we were asking for it all along. Whom we elect does send a message to the world about how all Americans view them. We hate and fear you, so we'll put people in power who reflect those views. Not a good message. People revere our way of life (even if they say they don't). But we're continually telling them we'd rather be an isolated, war-mongering bully. It's a great drunk, with a bad hangover coming.
For the survival of America it's critical that we start listening to and respecting the rest of the world.The old cowboy/bully days have failed in a grand way. Real Large has it right about the "when" we are no longer the top dog...that day is rapidly coming and it doesn't have to be a bad thing. If we can gain some respect, if we have something to offer other than weapon sale and wars we can still maintain a powerful nation Obama/Biden will be a statement to the world that we, as Americans, are paying attention. To continue to elect fools will signal that we ourselves are fools. God spare us if macain/palin come to represent the best we have to offer.
oh i didnt say it made sense, i just said that is the way i think most working class americans feel...
Obama, like McCain, is a total clown. But it is rather amusing to see so many gullible and ill-informed people salivating for this ridiculous windbag, with his rehearsed gestures and empty rhetoric about change. The man is a total fraud and you can see it when he speaks. You can see the rehearsal in the way he presents himself and moves his head when he talks. You can tell he practices a lot in front of a mirror. It is so transparent, but the dumbed-down public that is so obsessed with celebrity and worship for everything Hollywood cannot even discern what is real from what is fake. To them, whatever they see on the tube is how is must really be. Obama is as fake as a three dollar bill, but to the average person who believes in the two-party scam, he is just "so real." If you are aware of the bigger picture, you realize it doesn't which of these two clowns win as they decide nothing. Obama is every bit the warmonger and elite puppet that McCain is. Most of the people who like Obama know nothing about the way things really work, and many of them don't even know why they like Obama, other than for the way he looks and speaks. It's no different than the people who voted for Bush because he wears a cowboy hat and drives a Ford pickup.
People all around the world are going to feel a certain amount of jealousy and resentment no matter what our policies no matter who our leaders. A great deal of such feeling is so totaly detached from logic as to be of no importance or consideration. Others will look for appeasers or open borders politicians or other policies for selfish reasons. Some what bribes or other favors. Still more folks will be reflexively Anti-American no matter what is happening. They are all over. I don't want my leaders playing kissy face with creeps like Hugo Chavez. I do care what people around the world think and will consider the backstory.
