Comments on: Obama: New President of the World!

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:35:55 +0000

With all due respect to those in Europe, there are many, though clearly not all of us in the US, who are more concerned with our own opinion about the US President than what folks from other countries think. Would Spain or other countries welcome US opinion polls calling their elected leaders caustic names? Many Americans do welcome those remarks, but many do not. What’s really embarrassing as an American is that it provides some sort of major guidepost to some American voters – “my gosh, the French don’t like our leader!” It’s like America is taking on the inferiority complex that has consumed Europe since WWII.

I didn’t vote for him, but I hope Obama is a great president. I also hope that, if he isn’t, there’s more news to report than the latest derogatory opinion polls from Europe calling Obama names. And, let’s hope there isn’t hand wringing in the US about what the Europeans think of him. It’s really unseemly for people on both sides of the Atlantic.

By: raytibbitts

raytibbitts — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:05:53 +0000

I guess I just consider myself a Conservative Republican, more so than I consider Bush or McCain to fit that moniker.
I’ll be 35 soon, so not elderly, though.

By: Edith

Edith — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:14:32 +0000

@ Raytibbits,

No, I didn’t imply you felt threatened by any status quo. I was thinking of conservative Republicans, especially elderly ones.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:37:25 +0000

Re: Catholics becoming PM, yes this is technically impossible. The UK has an established, state religion (the Church of England) which is intimately tied to the structures of Government. The head of state, the Queen, is also head of the church. She appoints the PM and the PM appoints the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Church’s most senior priest.

That said, all you have to do is pretend you’re not a Catholic and then there’s no problem. Or better still, reform the whole mess, drop the Queen and the Church and take the country one step closer to democracy.

By: raytibbitts

raytibbitts — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:40:01 +0000

Oh, and I would be a WASP if my Irish grandfather would not disown me for the A. and the S. and if the P.’s would have me.
The first time I ever voted it was for Alan Keyes, a Black and a Catholic.
No, I don’t feel threatened by any Status Quo, nor lack thereof.

By: raytibbitts

raytibbitts — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:33:09 +0000

Kennedy was seen as being culturally outside the culture of the typical high-powered politician.
Obama is also seen as being outside this same range of cultural background.

I did not mean to imply that I believe that either actually lies outside the true cultural norm of the general population, but was trying to paraphrase what I have read from others who have compared the two leaders.

Sorry for the confusion.

By: ValenciaSon

ValenciaSon — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:47:35 +0000

@ Edith: To answer your question on how many WASPs are there in America, one only has to observe the attendance of the Republican Conventions.

By: Edith

Edith — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 09:29:42 +0000

@ Raytibbitts,

If Kennedy and Obama are still seen as ‘cultural outsiders’ by some, I’d like to ask who these people are. WASPS, I suppose, and possibly WASP males who feel threatened by this change in the status quo?

How many people in America are actually WASP?

After all, America was meant to be a melting pot, and a melting pot it has become… or am I wrong?

By: raytibbitts

raytibbitts — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:18:59 +0000

Which is it? Bush and McCain become presidential nominees of the Republican Party during this last decade, and the moral majority went along with the compromise; OR “the religious right hijacked the party over a decade ago” and forced everybody to follow their lead?
If the religious right had won in 2000 Alan Keyes would have been the first black president, and the party of Lincoln would still look more like the party of Lincoln.

By: Palmer

Palmer — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:21:31 +0000

The Republican Party is in a shambles now after this election and indeed had been heading down that road for a couple of years now. The religious right hijacked the party over a decade ago and people are now realising how narrow the focus of the party’s platform had become. It was not the compassionate conservatism that Bush promised. The democrats are the party of inclusion while the republicans are the party of exclusion. The party of Abraham Lincoln (republican) is unrecognizable today. They need to regroup to their original tenets of small government and economic frugality.