I see how the press has handled the presidential elections INSIDE the US, but I remember seeing a comment on a forum a week or so ago saying "this election affects the world, not just the US." Now with the election over I feel like I can talk about politics without being slammed with comments and so... I'm curious...
What kind of "press" did this US Presidential election receive from OTHER countries? I know there are hits on this blog from around 20 countries and I'm very interested to hear what (if any) press is being given to this historical presidential election. Anyone care to share? If there's any links to actual articles (written in English) that would be wonderful too!
In my court prep for Russian adoption I was grilled about why I was not supporting Obama. They thought that I must've been for Hillary and couldn't understand that either. Of course, this was a couple of hours after they explained that Georgia was completely at fault in that whole situation. They definitely wanted Obama to win in my children's region! And, they were definitely following the election.
ReplyDeleteHi from Australia!
ReplyDeleteThe general polls here showed something like 70% of Australians wanted Obama to be president (only 30% McCain).
The main problem was McCain was republican and therefore associated with Bush (who most Australians think of as um... truthfully... stupid and not very worldly). Picking Palin as vice president (another person deemed stupid/naive) was not a good idea.
I know you are very strongly anti-abortion, but this topic didn't even come up in our media and therefore would not be thought of when Australians wanted McCain or Obama.
The main items discussed were the sub prime crisis - the Australian government regulates the Australian banking industry so none of our banks went bankrupt (a lot of banks in Europe went bankrupt) although the share market dropped a whole lot. This was seen as a problem perpetuated by the Republican government.
The other issue here was world relations. Obama is deemed to be more worldly and therefore more likely to bring peace to the world(who knows if this is true?). My Malaysian Australian co-worker proudly told me that Obama's sister was married to a Malaysian man and he also went to school in Indonesia.
(sorry for the long post! I don't wish to create any arguments, just to let you know what kind of things were presented in the media here)
Cheers,
Jeanette
in Mexico favorite was Obama too, maybe because of the change that will represnt having an african/american as president
ReplyDeletebut as far i heard during the last days before election, we know Obama supported the wall in the US border, and that he is not a big fan of the TLC, so that make us wonder where will Mexico be in the US agenda
after Obama was announced, many economist specialist said that our president should try to talk to Obama before January
Fidel Castro, Hugo Chaves and Andres Manuel L.O, support Obama, so I dont know what to think about that lol, Im scared about their "aproval" for Obama
Wow, this is interesting! I had guessed as much as has been shown so far- we have 3 continents represented now at least ;) - and that is the pro-democratic leadership in a more global arena.
ReplyDeleteSo Markay, I guess they just see it as you must be a democrat so which did you like? And if it's not Obama it must be Hillary? I figured the war 'must' be Georgia's fault from that viewpoint or else there'd be no war, but it's interesting that another of the big areas of 'concern' were also hoping for Obama's victory...
I find it interesting that Jeanette you said that the sub-prime crisis is said to be part of the reason that people wanted Obama since it was a 'republican problem' when the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack stuff is what got us into the Sub prime issues here-- which is something purely democratic in nature and was done by some of the people that Obama is now having stand beside him. It's interesting how the same issues presented differently sometimes almost become different issues!
And no problem, Jeanette, I really am interested, hence my asking :) I'm glad you replied! I hope this doesn't come as a refute to your point but instead it's just my thoughts in response :) I know you're not forming the world's biases (which are ok to have anyway) and I'm really interested to see where the future political heads will bring us!
As far as Ali said about the other supporters of Obama, this is also a concern. Yes, there are a lot of supporters and many who are wonderful, but some of those that are wholeheartedly supporting Obama are ones that I would kindof hope WOULDN'T like our president bc of the differences in opinion I would hope would hold up... That's just my own opinion there tho! I also am not very informed about the US border wall or other similar issues so I can't comment there.
Thanks for sharing Ali!
I'll bite. Lurker from Canada here.
ReplyDeleteI've followed your election with mostly interest (and I'll admit it, some frustration, as it seemed to take a very long time, and sometimes canceled TV shows (gah! how shallow does that make me sound??)). From the reports I can see, roughly 67% of the country was rooting for Obama.
Since the election, there has been a LOT of discussion - on the radio, TV, at coffee breaks :) - about what this will mean for our relationship with the US, the economy, the environment - you name it, we're discussing it :)
I personally didn't see our media as biased in any way, leading up to the election, and I know that there has been a lot of talk (at least in some of the areas of the internet I visit) that the US media was quite biased for Obama. Not sure, since I haven't seen the US media coverage, but I will say ours seems to have been fair, and, now that Obama's in, quite positive.
For us, again, I think the biggest issue we cared about was what a new president would do for the economy. Abortion is less of an issue in Canada than the US, though more than Australia it seems.
There's my 2 cents from Canada.
--Rebecca
Hi meredith
ReplyDeleteHere in the Uk we had been watching with interest about the US election as although I don't really like politics, the government in America does affect the rest of the world (bush took us to war twice!).
Here is an interesting link from the BBC about the views of the world http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7435967.stm
Debbie
Hi, Meredith!
ReplyDeleteI'm delurking for this one. First off I wanted to say how much I enjoy reading your blog. You have a beautiful family!
I'm Karen, and I'm an American living in Spain. There has been a lot of coverage of the elections here. I don't have any statistics, but Spain is overwhelmingly in favor of Obama. I think in large part this is actually a response against Bush and anyone linked to Bush (as McCain is through party affiliation). To say it bluntly, thanks to the war in Iraq Bush is seen here as an imperialist bully who uses force instead of diplomacy to get his way in the world. Bush went ahead with the war despite the lack of support from the United Nations, and it scares people here to see the US imposing its might that way. Bush has been especially unpopular in Spain ever since Spanish president Zapatero had words with him after Spain pulled its troops out of Iraq in 2004. McCain only made things worse during the campaign when he said that as president he wouldn't meet with Zapatero, apparently confusing him with a Latin American dictator.
US domestic issues like abortion or health care have not been talked about by the press here, so they have had no influence on Spanish people's opinions of the candidates. Foreign policy has been the focus. Obama is seen as less of a hawk and someone more willing to use diplomatic means to solve world problems.
I think Karen hit it on the nose. I would bet the world doesn't care as much about our 'personal' issues (such as abortion) as they do about things that will impact them. I can see Bush and thus McCain as being seen as bullies. Even economic issues will be blamed on Bush. The Democratic congress has only been in power for 2 years. Prior to that, there was a Republican led congress. I doubt anyone outside of America knows too much about what congress does or cares about 'congress'. Despite who was in charge in Congress, The president is seen by the world as running our country. This president has been around for 8 years, thus all problems in the last 8 years are his. (Goes with the territory whether it's right or wrong) I doubt many know about the checks and balances (vetoes and such) that are in place to make sure no ONE person has all the power. Bush is the 'FACE" of America. I think we as Americans also demonstrated democracy at it's best by getting out and voting in record numbers (old, young, black, white, etc). I think that has to be a positive as seen in the world. So few countries have that freedom (without fear)
ReplyDeleteThese again are only my thoughts trying to think from an 'outsiders' point of view.
Jan
Here is a link to a relavant post written by an American in working in Africa. She found a store selling shirts supporting Obama, so it seems that he was the favorite there.
ReplyDeletehttp://alirae.net/blog/archives/156-drying-small.html
here's one from the philippines:
ReplyDeletehttp://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20081108-170925/Barack-a-fan-of-RPKenney
there are other links in the article. you might want to check the commentary on america's gain, philippines loss, too.
kisses to the kids.
cheche
philippines
I live in NY, but since we live on Lake Ontario we get a lot of Candadian TV stations. Most nights I watch "The Agenda", which is a political discussion/debate talk show in Ontario Canada. (Don't think I'm so into policitics, lol, I watch it waiting for my british shows that I like to come on! ;o) ). Anyway, they have been saying that Canada is about 70% for Obama.
ReplyDeleteTheir main concerns are the economy and how it affects them. Also the Northern American Trade Agreement (can't remember if that's the exact words, but that's the idea, sorry, told you, I'm really NOT polictial, lol). They are also concerned regarding their troops in Afganistan and Iraq and wanting them out ASAP.
Well, it is interesting, as my husband works in the media in the UK we've been surprised by how many people in media were NOT for Obama. I know a lot of people did not like Bush so it was a surprise. Having said that, there were plenty in the UK that do like Obama.
ReplyDeleteOn an interesting aside, my MIL just today met with a black friend of hers. She told her congratulations (she wasn't trying to imply anything about race - she actually has a huge heart for the black community and was in tears watching all the black Americans so excited about Obama's win).
Well, this woman asked her why she was congratulating her and when she explained she thought she'd be happy Obama won, she was told, most forthrightly that NO, the black Christians do NOT like Obama.
I guess it really depends on if you are considering the economy above human life. The pro life Christians who know his record of voting FOUR times in favour of infanticide have no use for him at all!
I don't know that this is the overall view in Britain. A lot of Christians are just not very aware of this.
I follow the blog of a couple who is sailing around the world. They are in Singapore right now, and just finished working their way through Indonesia. They said that everywhere they went, the people were very excited about Obama and hoped he would win.
ReplyDeleteAn aside - they also said there are a lot of Muslims and a lot of mosques there, even on many of the remote little islands.
Personally, I have felt sick ever since Tuesday night. How can so many people be so gullible? They think he is going to pay their rent, buy their groceries and solve all their problems. Anyone can buy an election for $650 million dollars. The next four to eight years are going to be hard. Very,very hard.
Cheryl fron Maine
Just my two cents, but how can people belive that B.O. is not a Muslim? He said "he used to be a Muslim." Um..once a Muslim always a Muslim everything I have read. I don't get it. He joined a "christian" church to get the focus off of his true beliefs. I believe we are probably in for the ride of our lives as Americans over the next 4 and maybe 8 years! Like the last commenter said, "how can people be so gullible?" B.O. can say all he wants about "change" then just last week he said "we won't see much change in the first four years." What's that supposed to mean?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cheryl from Maine!
ReplyDeleteKaren from Florida
Well, you've got a few posts from Canada already. From what I have heard here is that Obama was the favorite to win. Everyone seemed to think McCain's was too old and that Sarah Palin would end up taking over. Not alot of people I've heard from were big fans of hers. They thought she was too "dumb" (for lack of a better word...sorry) to run the country. I personally liked her.
ReplyDeleteLike someone else said the main problem too was McCain being republican, therefore being associated with Bush. Bush is not well liked here.
Oh, and we had an election a few weeks ago, but the U.S. election was FAR more interesting than ours.
Anyways, add me to the list of "shallow-ness" because I too got mad when my shows got interrupted for U.S. political stuff! I HATE politics! LOL.
I just spoke with my cousin, who has been deployed to Iraq, twice. He said that through every airport that he traveled through during his deployment, and any local newspapers that he came across, they were not only interested in the presidential campaign/election, but also the congressional seats. Interesting.
ReplyDelete