Obama, Terrorism, & US Image

Discussion in 'Politics' started by Trader5287, Jan 26, 2008.

  1. One night a few weeks ago CNBC Asia brought in Asian based
    political scientists to brief viewers there on the US elections.

    The Obama briefer was an Indonesian college professor that had grown up with Obama. His points:

    (1) If Obama was elected, he thought overnight half the anti-US sentiment in the world would vanish.

    (2) It would be very destabilizing in the most virulently anti-American regimes. The idea here is there'd appear to people, particularly young men, an inherent contradiction in how The Great Satan could elect somebody named Barack Hussein Obama President. They'd see wild world wide popularity of this youthful black JFK type with a Muslim background and it wouldn't be long before they'd be asking why they couldn't have a leader like that.

    What do you say to this argument?
     
  2. Very optimistic but I hope the man was right.
     
  3. One night a few weeks ago CNBC Asia brought in Asian based
    political scientists to brief viewers there on the US elections.

    The Obama briefer was an Indonesian college professor that had grown up with Obama. His points:

    (1) If Obama was elected, he thought overnight half the anti-US sentiment in the world would vanish.


    It might vanish for a while, but it could return just as quickly as it vanished. Bush is hated universally because of his actions and what Obama could and actually would do is as fuzzy as his speeches.

    (2) It would be very destabilizing in the most virulently anti-American regimes. The idea here is there'd appear to people, particularly young men, an inherent contradiction in how The Great Satan could elect somebody named Barack Hussein Obama President. They'd see wild world wide popularity of this youthful black JFK type with a Muslim background and it wouldn't be long before they'd be asking why they couldn't have a leader like that.

    Again, initially I think Obama would bring greater popularity back to America, but at what price and at what benefit?

    Unfortunately, the president of the United States actions are viewed abroad and internally as somehow the actions of America, or all Americans. Not long ago people who were anti-Bush were viewed as being UnAmerican by the majority of Americans, and the ideas that being anti-Bush was anti-patriotic. Well that makes as much sense as being anti-Norv Turner means someone is anti San Diego Chargers. The coach is not the team, the president is not America. That concept needs to be understood. A person can love a country and love their country and hate the president or the leader. The idiot Bush made this error by calling out countries as evil, rather than saying the people were good but the leadership was bad. So the good people who were citizens of those countries who also didn't approve of the leadership of Iraq, or Iran, or North Korea were pissed off unnecessarily by Bush's idiotic rhetoric.

    With Bush's approval numbers in the shitter, do the people abroad have sympathy for America as a whole because most Americans now, including members of his own party hate him? I think they understand the difference to a great extent between a country and the leadership they are stuck with.

    Do they hate us for our freedom?

    LOL!

    They hate us because of the way we use the military and economic power we have in a self serving manner yet preach as if we actually are doing what we do for others. The impression that America and Americans is/are self absorbed, greedy, and self righteous might reverse for a while with a new president who is anti-Bush president, but we will have to see how much foreign policy really changes, and how much power the corporate beast of capitalism is restrained.

    Unless Obama takes a different approach with Israel, then nothing much will change and the feel good rhetoric of Obama will turn sour like old milk rather quickly.

    Additionally, just as Kennedy was hated intensely by the far right and the internal power brokers, Obama will have major opposition internally if he tries to fuck with the power grid that influences politics.

    I do think we will see another increase in dems in the house and senate as a result of the November election, but if we don't get a dem president as well who will work with congress as Kennedy was able to do, then it will be a mess. In the modern era since Hoover, Kennedy implemented the veto the least number of times (yes, a shortened term is a factor) apart from Jughead Bush, but none of Kennedy's vetoes were overridden.

    http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0801767.html

    I think the argument the author makes is accurate from the concept that is soooo American, i.e. "Image is everything" and perception changes everything, so a change in image will generate a change in perception abroad, but we have seen our own president's approval ratings jump above 90% following 9/11 to the toilet water level of Bush now, so things may bump initially, but will relations really improve longer term?

    I would like to hope so...