Well, finally the US Democrats have plumped for Barrack Obama to run for them in the US Presidential race… I have to say this seems like a good move as I believed Hillary Clinton was running for her personal ambitions rather than for any greater ideal about American politics. One US political reporter stated that she wouldn’t throw in the towel for the benefit of uniting the Democratic Party because she is only interested in maximising the result for Team Clinton.
Putting aside the impeachment of her husband, I always thought Bill Clinton was a good US President and that he and the Democrats did a lot to further peaceful relations in the Middle East etc… but I just cant see Hilary doing that. So from a US Foreign Policy perspective, I am glad Obama has the nod.
This in turns brings me to his Republican opponent John McCain. If there was a person who was worse and more feared than George W Bush, then it’s this nutter. You will never see a more militant right wing gun nut than John McCain. He is already on record that he wants to “take out Iran” and “finish the job” in the Middle East. This is a scary man! And I fear that pre-election the current Republican regime will do something drastic in Iran. To sum it up, I believe if McCain is the next US President, we’re all fucked. Food, petrol up… economic recessions and depressions in and a world that will be unsafe anywhere as the already horrendous wars and terrorist events will only escalate up to new levels.
Hopefully a more moderate UK leadership, a UN still smarting from the lessons learnt from last time, and our own KRudd not towing the US policy mantra like Johnny Howard did will see us avert a worse crisis than what is going on today in Iraq.
I can’t vote, but I sure hope you Americans do the right thing at the polling booths!
8 comments:
"To sum it up, I believe if McCain is the next US President, we’re all fucked. Food, petrol up… economic recessions and depressions"
It'll probably happen anyway. Petrol especially is heading upwards no matter what anybody does. The question is: how will we work around it? Clinton and McCain suggested tax breaks on fuel, which will achieve nothing. Hopefully Obama has the right ideas.
"we're all fucked"... maybe I should have said "more fucked than we already are".
I agree... things are not nor will they be pretty in the short term. I just dont know how the western economic model can sustain another term of right wing neo-con aggression.
I agree Daniel... I just don't know what these ideas would be.
i think your comments about McCain are waaaaaaaay off base.
He's not a neo con like Bush's hawks like Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.
i read this last year and have a grudging admiration for him - he's not perfect - but he's nowhere as bad as the man in the White House at the moment.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/02/mccain200702
Last comment had some tech issues... mmm,,,
Anyway, my point Anon is that that Vanity Fair article is a nice feel good political story clearly arranged by the Senators PR dept.
How about some independent views:
http://www.slate.com/id/2192263/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-heilbrunn/john-mccain-neocon_b_82530.html
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2006/12/08/iraq_mccain/
I don't know which is scarier.
That fact that I don't believe that Obama will beat McCain but that Hillary could, or that despite what has been announced, Hillary can still win the party nomination.
Clay, firstly the Huffington Post is not an independent news outlet.
If anything, Vanity Fair is just as left of centre.
My point is, McCain is not cut from the same cloth as the republicans that are currently in power.
The great benefit of Obama is that he represents new politics. How he fares is another matter.......
Well Vanity Fair is a magazine with hardcopies to sell... Huffington Post is a blog / news site that has nothing to gain other than click thru advert revenue.
The other sites are similarly independent, but I agree would have a bias. My views on journalism have been well documented on this site ;)
I agree that Obama will be heavily tested and may fail, but I think you're completely wrong re the "different cloth". McCain is on record as saying that Iran should be invaded and then he made this gaffe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-zoPgv_nYg
Same cloth, different cloth? The man is a nut...
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