So last election season, Oma was talking with the Dutch relatives. She asked them what the Dutch thought about Bush and Kerry.
Their response was striking. They said that most of Europe just sort of rolls their eyes at American Presidential elections. That basically, it doesn’t matter who’s president, the policies are more or less the same. When you’re voting in a European election system that has real-live socialists, communists, democrats, republicans, libertarians and many others, the two-party system looks a little narrow.
It struck me how funny it was that from our perspective (on the “inside”) our two parties looked hopelessly worlds apart. But from the outside, the two parties looked more or less the same.
I certainly think that there are some significant differences between the two candidates. But I wonder if we sometimes get a little lost in those differences, blow them up to the Nth degree in order to give CNN something to talk about 24/7.
My take on the debate the other night: both did fine, but McCain needed to do more to create momentum. One month out, I’m not sure if Obama can lose, barring some sort of colossal mistake. But I’m still undecided.
4 comments:
I've been told the same thing by many European friends. After listening to just a bit of the first debate, I think I agree. I was listening to two moderates argue about minute details because they needed something to disagree on. That said, I don't really like either of them. Sometimes I wish we had more than two choices...
I'm not surprised that Europeans would feel that way about American candidates in general, but I think they might feel differently about this particular election. My friends who studied abroad in Europe this summer told me that most of the Europeans they met were very excited about Obama.
Another interesting thing is that the Economist is doing an online poll for people from all over the world, and so far Obama has gotten 21,200 votes and McCain has gotten 4,245 votes.
I'm with you in being undecided. Let's vote for "this one" and "that one." Seems fair, doesn't it?
thanks for the comments, folks! i definitely think that the post-Bush push-back is stronger internationally even than it is here in the States. And in Europe, particularly, they tend to be a good deal more liberal politically (and otherwise) than Americans. So it would make sense that Obama is a draw whereas McCain isn't so much!
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