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What does the rest of the world think

Sheesh, choosing between the devil and deep blue sea. Or rather, the devil you know and the devil you don't. Whatever's happened to good ol' leadership potential nowadays?

 

Man, rest of the world really doesn't like Bush, only 15% of votes so far.

Finland: 1464 votes (6%) for Bush and 20587 votes (93%) for Kerry. Not suprising at all.
 
The vast majority of the rest of the world votes against Bush. Some might say this is a good sign to clueless Americans to open their eyes and stop being sheep.... some might say...
 
Originally posted by: DAGTA
The vast majority of the rest of the world votes against Bush. Some might say this is a good sign to clueless Americans to open their eyes and stop being sheep.... some might say...

Others find it a Badge of Honour and believes it vindicates Bush.

Bush's Business history is quite telling, he's been a failure his whole life and continues to be.
 
Yeah I guess it comes to no surprise that the rest of the world is more liberal, although it also seems that the US poll is a bit schewed comapred to other polls.
 
Well, some tough decisions, but I say that after the disaterous 4 years with Bush Jr. as president, we have had enough. I hope someone else, even if it is Kerry, becomes president and does a better job not to screw up in office!
-Elias
 
I dont care about the rest of the world in regards to our president...i dont recall americans getting concerned about any foreign elections.
 
Originally posted by: GoPackGo
I dont care about the rest of the world in regards to our president...i dont recall americans getting concerned about any foreign elections.

Well we do deal with other countries we should get a president that is in good standing with other countries.

And do you know how many times we have installed democracys in other countries? alot.

 
If ANYTHING has become clear at this point, it's that Bush supporters don't care about the rest of the world...and the rest of the world is returning the favor.
 
Originally posted by: Infohawk
It seems that electing kerry would lead to a more harmonious world and better foreign relations with the USA.
More harmony with the countries that we're already more or less friendly with.

Originally posted by: Rainsford
If ANYTHING has become clear at this point, it's that Bush supporters don't care about the rest of the world...and the rest of the world is returning the favor.
This isn't a popularity contest. If it were, we'd probably put Clinton back in office - he never did anything to piss anyone off. He didn't do much in our favor, either. Sometimes you just have to do what needs done, even if not everyone is happy about it.
 
Originally posted by: GoPackGo
I dont care about the rest of the world in regards to our president...i dont recall americans getting concerned about any foreign elections.

Yes, but it will take more than myopia to reverse the effects of globalization.
 
Originally posted by: GoPackGo
I dont care about the rest of the world in regards to our president...i dont recall americans getting concerned about any foreign elections.

How many history courses have you taken?

More support for our president throughout the world is a good thing.
 
Originally posted by: GoPackGo
I dont care about the rest of the world in regards to our president...i dont recall americans getting concerned about any foreign elections.


Get your head out of the sand. Do you really believe we could have ended the cold war all by ourselves? It took world support and world opinion and a lot of time to turn that around. GWB has basically squandered all that to get the WMD's that weren't even there.

His only hope is to be able to trot out some WMD's just before November.
 
Originally posted by: CycloWizard
Originally posted by: Infohawk
It seems that electing kerry would lead to a more harmonious world and better foreign relations with the USA.
More harmony with the countries that we're already more or less friendly with.

It seems the "less friendly with" description is most appropiate

Originally posted by: Rainsford
If ANYTHING has become clear at this point, it's that Bush supporters don't care about the rest of the world...and the rest of the world is returning the favor.
This isn't a popularity contest. If it were, we'd probably put Clinton back in office - he never did anything to piss anyone off. He didn't do much in our favor, either. Sometimes you just have to do what needs done, even if not everyone is happy about it.

Elections are nothing more then a poularity contest. You vote for the person who best represents your ideals and beliefs. The person who wins is the most popular.

 
Originally posted by: Rainsford
If ANYTHING has become clear at this point, it's that Bush supporters don't care about the rest of the world...and the rest of the world is returning the favor.

When the world turns its back on you, you turn your back on the world.
:music:
Hakuna Matata!
What a wonderful phrase

Hakuna Matata!
Ain't no passing craze

It means no worries
For the rest of your days

It's our problem-free
Philosophy

Hakuna Matata!:music:
 
Originally posted by: Infohawk
It seems that electing kerry would lead to a more harmonious world and better foreign relations with the USA.

yeah, lets do what will please other nations. :beer:
 
Anybody who has lived outside the US for some years exposed exclusively to a different culture and has perhaps half a brain will not fail to note on returning how deeply brainwashed Americans are. People are so proud of what they are and their opinions and never realize they are only a script put there by exposure to others with the same script.
 
Interesting article in the Washington Post about more or less this very subject:

World Pundits Pounce on Bush">http://www.washingtonpost.com/.../A47622-2004Aug30.html</a>

By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Monday, August 30, 2004; 10:02 PM

The Republican Party is about to nominate him by acclamation.

Almost half of all American voters polled say they will vote for him in November.

But in the international online media, the vast majority of commentators are harshly critical of President George W. Bush. On every continent pundits are faulting Bush for his persona as well as his policies. Most dislike his conduct of the war in Iraq. Many say his attitude toward the rest of the world is contemptuous, misinformed and dangerous.

This chorus of criticism is part of the globalization of U.S. politics. In a world with only one superpower, many people feel a stake in the U.S. election, even if they don't have a vote.

It's not that Bush doesn't have defenders. Rupert Murdoch's newspapers in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia are generally supportive. But, on the eve of Bush's nomination, his critics in the foreign press are much more outspoken and numerous.

In Europe, suspicion of Bush's veracity is both wide and deep.

The Guardian of London said in a news story Monday that the Republicans launched "an ambitious exercise in political agility today, putting a centrist face on its New York convention while adopting a manifesto even more rightwing than George Bush's administration."

The lead editorial of Le Monde in Paris likens Bush's evangelical Protestantism to the Islamic fundamentalism in its rejection of Western modernity.

Bush, in their view, has a "biblical vision of the world where the forces of Good confront the forces of Evil and where the Americans, new people chosen by God, take on a universal mission of conversion and reform."

One of the few pro-Bush papers in Europe, Madrid's ABC (in Spanish), says Bush's emphasis on security and defense will appeal to American voters who have been "living in a state of shock" since Sept. 11.

In the Middle East, even those whom Bush professes to help are vocal in spurning his policies.

In Iraq, which now has a free press thanks to Bush's invasion, one independent daily in Baghdad, Sabah al-Jadeed, declared last week that Bush's policy adjustments have been "late, poor or wrong."

The administration, the editors said, has relied too much on U.S. generals and politicians who judge Iraq "unfairly" and "inaccurately" and on self-interested Iraqis who are "obedient and isolated."

The Daily Star in Lebanon is one of the leading voices of reform in the Arab world, a cause that the Bush administration has sought to advance.

But Patrick Seale, a veteran Middle East analyst, wrote in the Star on Monday that "America's war in Iraq and its tolerance of Israel's destruction of Palestinian society have aroused unprecedented anger . . ..At the heart of America's failure lies the administration's refusal to recognize that the contemporary roots of Islamic terror are to be found in American policies."

Only in Israel does Bush win open admiration. Writing for the Jerusalem Post, Michael Wissot says, "President Bush has done more for Israel than any other president in the last 50 years."

Across Asia, Bush's recent acknowledgment that his administration had miscalculated in Iraq was greeted with derision.

"His realisation is rather inadequate," said the editor of the Nation, a leading English language daily in Pakistan.

"Iraqi cities have been subjected to bombardment, the social and economic infrastructure destroyed and innocent civilians including women and children killed in thousands. The historical graveyard and Imam Ali's shrine in Najaf have been desecrated by foreign troops. . . . The resistance meanwhile continues to mount."

In the Manila Bulletin, columnist Fr. Rolando V Dela Rosa noted that one-time U.S. allies in Iraq -- Spain, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Philippines -- have all withdrawn their troops from Iraq in recent months.

"Americans must wake up to the fact that the Coalition of the Willing is actually just the result of the Consensus of One Man," he wrote.

"The weakness in Mr Bush's new global vision lies in its oversimplification," said the Sydney Morning Herald.

In Africa, the tone of the criticism is perhaps harsher.

The Monitor, a leading daily in Uganda, noted that the United States, aided Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons program in the 1980s and now seeks to try him for war crimes.

"If these are the ?values' which President George Bush claims are the reasons why people elsewhere hate America, then the source of their hatred becomes apparent even to a child of six," the paper said.

South Africa's leading newspaper, the Mail and Guardian, welcomed the prospect of Bush's "growing domestic unpopularity and defeat in the US presidential election later this year ? opinion polls encouragingly signal that he may be on the skids."

"The world of the 21st century desperately needs the democratic values enshrined in the Constitution of the US, as well as its wealth, organizational skills and scientific and technical brilliance," the Johannesburg daily concluded. "But until it learns to partner its fellow-nations, and sheds the habits of coercion and military adventure, it remains a deadly threat to us all."

In Latin America, columnist Eduardo Torres writes in the conservative El Salvador daily El Diario de Hoy (in Spanish) that "Iraq and the possibility of an attack on the United States . . . mean that for the time being, the themes of the debate favor the president." But the Mexican newsweekly Proceso (in Spanish) has the harsher, more common view. Bush, by presenting himself to Americans as "savior of the world and public enemy number one of the bad guys," is actually practicing "the politics of fear."
 
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