If you’ve listened to John McCain’s repetitive line that Barack Obama just doesn’t understand the problems facing the world, then maybe you’d be surprised to the learn that the vast majority of the world would prefer to see Obama in the White House.
A recent Economist survey and poll that divided the world up into theoretical electoral votes found that a shocking 8,375 world electoral votes would go to Obama and only 16 to McCain. In every country and every region in the world, with maybe the sole exception of Georgia (where all Americans are Georgians, according to McCain), Obama would win handsomely. Even after Sarah Palin claimed that she “loved Israel” and would never second guess them, Israelis poll 74% in favor of the candidate with the funny Muslim sounding name. In another survey, the Economist found that the great majority of professional economists preferred Obama’s economic plans to those of McCain.
Now is there something that John McCain doesn’t understand? Does the fact that Obama is only leading by single digits show that America is increasingly distancing itself from the international mainstream? The U.S. has stood alone and against all the other major democracies on some of they key moral issues of the day from ending capital punishment, creating an international criminal tribunal to ratifying international climate change measures. Furthermore, the U.S. is increasingly seen, not as a force of good, but as a military empire that uses its force for the sole purpose of sustaining it’s economic and military dominance. This isn’t the view point of America’s enemies, but that of its friends. I know. I live in Europe and hear this kind of talk all the time. For example, in a recent headline in a major Spanish newspaper, El Mundo, a leading communications scholar likened Obama to Gorbachev, hoping that the American politician could move the U.S. away from imperial militarism in the same way that Gorbachev loosened the oppressive grip on the Soviet Union.
I believe that when you analyze the facts, there are two areas where the U.S. is moving dangerously out of touch with the world: consumption and war. These will eventually alienate America to its own detriment. Continue reading
Grave Error 