[lit-ideas] Re: The Guardian says we had better elect Obama, or else!
- From: Andy <mimi.erva@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:48:28 -0700 (PDT)
The problem is that we're becoming irrelevant to the world. If the world likes
Obama, they'll pay more attention to us. Otherwise we'll be that grayed out
country with the guns. All our options for the last eight years have been
military, which you reiterate as desirable. Well, here we are:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26642415
--- On Wed, 9/10/08, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [lit-ideas] The Guardian says we had better elect Obama, or else!
To: lawrencehelm1.post@xxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 5:41 PM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/10/uselections2008.barackobama
The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland is warning us that “The World’s verdict will
be hard if the US rejects the man it yearns for.”
The “it” that yearns is Europe. He fears for the U.S. He fears there will be
a “European backlash” if we don’t elect 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.”
That’s heavy stuff, Jonathan! The entire free world would elect Obama? Heck I
was thinking just Europe, but I forgot about Venezuela, Cuba and Russia. And
they don’t like McCain???
Jonathan wants us to listen to Europe, whom he calls “the rest of the world”:
“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.
“Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood:
outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this
specific administration. But if McCain wins in November, that might well
change. Suddenly Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with
not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves. For it will have been the
American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a
once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is
yearning for.”
Jonathan thinks we might very well not elect Obama and therefore be in a
hopeless predicament. He writes, “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.”
Well, I definitely feel intimidated. The rest of the world . . . er . . ..
Europe is probably preparing an invasion force even as we speak. . . and
they’ll probably make us be the biggest part of it. Drat.
Lawrence Helm
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