The world has never watched any vote, in any nation, so closely. In country after country, polls show record-high fascination with the outcome of the U.S. elections this Tuesday. The Voice of America, which broadcasts in 45 languages to a worldwide audience of 134 million, is seeing "unprecedented interest. Indonesians and Kenyans, are of course fascinated and somewhat astonished by the fact that Barack Obama, a man with ties to both places, should be the front runner. Europe is thrilled by the prospect that whatever happens this week it will mean the end of George W. Bush. It's very clear who they are interested in: Barack Obama.
Senator Obama goes into Election Day with a steady lead in U.S. polls, averaging about 50 percent to 44 percent for McCain, but he was headed for a landslide around the world, topping polls in virtually every nation often by strong margins: 70 percent in Germany, 75 percent in China and so on. Somewhere along the road to the White House, Obama became the world's candidate—a reminder that for all the talk of America's decline, for all the hatred of Bush, the rest of the world still looks upon the United States as a land of hope and opportunity. The Obama story is what makes America magical.
Outside of the United States, most people see Senator Obama as a 21st-century man with whom the whole world can identify versus an old cold-warrior out of synch with the complex political and economic crises of our age. If at home, especially as the election neared its end, Obama seemed to be playing down his Blackness, his intellect, and his progressive ideas, these were the qualities that drew the rest of the world to him. Asia was trying to claim Obama for his Indonesian childhood, Africa for his Kenyan father, and the Middle East for his middle name.
Once upon a time, John McCain, too, was seen as part of the post-Bush American reformation. When he ran for president in 2000 he promised wouldn't "pander" to "agents of intolerance," whose grip on U.S. politics has long perplexed and worried outsiders. When in late August McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate in a bid for support from conservative evangelicals, his global luster quickly faded.
Throughout Europe Polls show Obama rising in the polls since May, to the present average of 62 percent in October. In France "France for Obama" T shirts have not been able to keep up with the demand. The Portuguese-language networking sites have 293 "communities" dedicated to Obamania. In Brazil, at least eight candidates in recent elections simply borrowed Barack Obama's name and put it on the ballot instead of their own.
If Obama losses rest of the world will continue to say (only more loudly) that America is on the decline, and it will look all the smaller for having failed to redeem itself with the election of a young Black man with African and South Asian roots and a Middle Eastern middle name. They already think Americans are crazy for re-electing Bu$h.
The world caught a glimpse of their man on a sunny afternoon last July in Berlin. He stood at the base of Berlin's Siegessäule, or Victory Column, in the Tiergarten. Some 200,000 people fanned out before him, a crowd much larger than any he had drawn at home during 18 months of campaigning. "People of the world," Barack Obama said, "look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one." The world has already cast its vote, in poll after poll. In a globalized world, the U.S. president can shapes lives worldwide. So in a sense he is their president, too. Around the globe Obama has raised hopes of a progressive leader who can restore America's moral leadership.
No comments:
Post a Comment