Posted on 07/23/2008 5:52:29 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
(Reactions outside U.S. having an impact back home)
If the clamor over Democrat Barack Obama's foreign trip illustrates anything beyond his sheer celebrity abroad, it is the degree to which this American election is being "internationalized."
It's not simply that interest in the race outside the United States is off the charts. Or that both presumptive nominees, Obama and Republican John McCain, have interrupted their campaigning this year to boost their leadership credentials overseas.
It's also the intense and unpredictable interplay between politics here and abroad - how the contest is shaping political debate in other countries, how the candidates are playing to foreign audiences and how foreign attitudes toward the election and the reactions of foreign leaders may be influencing the campaign back in the United States.
This is hardly the first time that events abroad have shaped a presidential race.
But a host of factors - "Obama-mania," the Iraq war, the intensity of anti-Bush sentiment in many countries and the way the Web has globalized coverage of the race - have combined to expand the campaign playing field in 2008 well beyond American shores.
Already, Obama's trip has produced one major campaign story, with Iraqi leaders unexpectedly lending support to the Democrat's timeline for U.S. troop withdrawals.
One Iraqi official said afterward that his government didn't want to be "part of the electoral campaign in the United States," but the comments had exactly that effect, giving Obama a boost in his sparring with McCain over timetables.
The fact that the story originated with an interview that Iraq's prime minister gave to the German magazine Der Spiegel underlined something else about the international dimensions of the race - the foreign media's unmistakable role in breaking stories that become part of the U.S. political coverage.
Then there's Obama's appearance in Berlin on Thursday before an expected throng of cheering Germans, an event without any antecedent in recent U.S. elections and one that embodies the byplay in this election between foreign and domestic audiences.
Is the Berlin speech a German political story? Very definitely - ever since the trip touched off a debate among German political rivals over the proper venue in Berlin for Obama's historic address.
Is it an American campaign event? That goes without saying, with Obama betting that he has more to gain from basking in the approval of European crowds than he has to lose from U.S. voters turned off by a candidate "playing" to foreign opinion.
"There are different layers to this," said Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, a former U.S. correspondent for the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit, now with the German Marshall Fund, which promotes U.S.-Europe relations.
"There's the German domestic political thing. . . . There's an American campaign thing, and there's, of course, a foreign policy component, that this could mark a new beginning in the transatlantic relationship," said Kleine-Brockhoff, interviewed from Germany. Sense of doubt about U.S.
"One of the reasons why the international stage is so important (in this campaign) is there's a sense of real doubt in the rest of the world about America," said Steve Clemons, a foreign policy blogger who writes "The Washington Note" and a policy analyst with the New America Foundation, a D.C. think tank.
Despite their differences over Iraq, Clemons said, both Obama and McCain want to prove to U.S. voters that they would represent a break with Bush style and doctrine and "restore America's prestige and credibility in the world."
One way to do that is to show voters at home that they have credibility abroad.
"I see this dynamic . . . where they're almost trying to reach those foreign audiences. I think that's something new," Clemons said. "You've got to sell the international audience to make yourself look credible."
That political need, along with the globalizing effects of the Web, has created a more visible role for foreign opinion, foreign leaders and foreign media in the U.S. election.
Public opinion has clearly favored Obama abroad, polls show, bolstering his argument that he could help change America's image overseas.
Elite opinion abroad is harder to measure and appears more mixed in many countries.
"When I was in China the last two weeks, my general sense was they want McCain's economic policy and Obama's foreign policy," said Clemons, alluding to McCain's staunch support for global trade agreements, which puts him closer to many foreign governments than Obama is on that issue. Foreign contributions
The contributions of the foreign press to the campaign coverage also have been noteworthy.
One example last spring: reports from Canada that a senior Obama adviser had privately downplayed Obama's criticism of NAFTA to the Canadian government. That scoop by the Canadian media generated huge local coverage during the Ohio primary battle between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Another example: the resignation of Obama foreign policy adviser Samantha Power after she called Clinton a "monster" in an interview with The Scotsman newspaper during a trip to Great Britain.
"Our stories can get picked up by Drudge or Politico or other U.S. Web sites. . . . So to some extent, that makes us potentially much bigger players," said Toby Harnden, Washington correspondent for the Daily Telegraph of London.
"We have a domestic audience, but we also have an American audience," said Harnden, who added that the intensity of British coverage also reflects the huge stake that people outside the U.S. feel they have in the decision that will be made by American voters.
"So it's not like it's 'Let's stand back and observe what's happening in this strange foreign land,' " Harnden said, referring to the spirit of much of the foreign coverage in the past. "It's, 'Hey, this is something that's really important to us, and this is what we think.' "
A recent story by Harnden illustrates another dynamic at work: how the U.S. campaign is framing domestic political debates abroad. Writing about Obama's upcoming visit to London, Harnden noted that Conservative Party leader David Cameron, despite his more natural affinity with America's Republican Party, is being touted by his supporters as the "British Obama . . . the young candidate of change."
And it's not only in Britain that the Obama phenomenon is affecting political rivalries overseas. The major story line in the German press in advance of Obama's trip was the debate among German politicians over the venue for Obama's speech. Chancellor Angela Merkel declared her opposition to Obama speaking at the iconic Brandenburg Gate. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the opposition party disagreed.
Obama's speech Thursday in Berlin, his only major crowd event of the foreign trip, will take place at the Victory Column in a large open space where German soccer fans gathered to watch the last World Cup and European Cup on huge outdoor screens.
The candidate is expected to draw tens of thousands, possibly far more.
"It's the highest level of attention (to a U.S. campaign) in Europe that anybody can remember," said John Glenn of the German Marshall Fund, which has launched an election Web site aimed at a transatlantic audience under the banner "What Europe Needs to Know."
"All they want to talk about is Obama," said Glenn, who just returned from a European trip. He attributed that to the "historic" nature of Obama's candidacy, the drama of the American election, expectations about the post-Bush era and a hunger for better relations with the U.S.
Europeans and the rest of the world have poured a lot of money into the Obama campaign ... of course they’re interested, and excited at the prospects of electing someone who will complete the leveling of the U.S. down to third world standards.
ROFLMAO
“Other nations want Obama’s foreign policy”
Of course they do. They would like nothing better than to eviscerate the United States and bring it down a few notches. Everybody likes to knock off the king of the hill.
Who paid for this trip?
It’s good he’s taking this trip and the media are acting like he is president already. I think people are forgetting the name of the current president. And as he supposedly is so unpopular he is dragging down the whole GOP, then does it not help McCain and the party for Bush to be marginalized? Obama’s boosters might just be hurting their own cause.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.