Curtains for Republicans? -7 days ’til election
One week to go, and we continue to see an exodus of conservative figures from the McCain-Palin ticket. Last week, Colin Powell made a high-profile endorsement of Barack Obama. Today, Anne Applebaum explains at Slate (http://www.slate.com/id/2203125/) why John McCain is no Margaret Thatcher and therefore unworthy of her right-wing affections.
Meanwhile, Der Spiegel has a combative interview with neo-conservative Robert Kagan, who owns up to Bush-era mistakes while advising Europeans to “go ahead and let your heart beat for Obama; bus use your head to choose McCain.” Europeans, like much of the rest of the world, continue to express enthusiasm for an Obama presidency, while thinking little of a President McCain. One poll by a French TV station this week for instance pegged McCain’s support in France at 1 percent (http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE49M45820081023).
In Chile, new reports of a secret meeting in 1985 between John McCain and venerable dictator Augusto Pinochet have set off critical fire in the Latin American blogosphere (http://voiceswithoutvotes.org/2008/10/28/chile-the-1985-meeting-between-mccain-and-pinochet/), while raising new questions in the US (http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2008/10/blog-mccain-met.html) regarding McCain’s resolve to stand up to current-day strongmen like Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Elsewhere, the global press is reporting on excitement among non-US black Westerners regarding a potential Obama victory. The Toronto Star speaks to black Canadians thrilled at the prospect of a black US president, including one woman who states that “I wish I were American, just for one day, so I could vote for Obama.” Reuters Africa chronicles the hopes of blacks in the UK and France, many of whom see a President Obama as a critical counterpoint to the “woefully bad” representation of blacks in top government posts across the Atlantic.
Finally, at Dear American Voter, several more Indian citizens speak to their optimism that Obama’s heritage and race will benefit future global relations. What are your final thoughts on the election? Let us know here.
