There are still countries that 'get it.'The non-EU minds of Britain.
Most of Australia.
Poland.
Perhaps, as they are hit by terrorism themselves, certain others may begin to more completely 'get it.'
India.
Russia.
Posted on 09/26/2004 9:13:34 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
THE early results from the US election are in and I can report that it appears to be a landslide for John Kerry. Around the world, from New York eastwards, the Massachusetts senator is racking up massive majorities against the incumbent, George W. Bush.
A poll this month by the University of Maryland and GlobeScan gave Kerry a 59-point lead over Bush in Germany. In France, just 5 per cent of respondents supported the President. In Britain, Bush did little better with 16 per cent.
The only winning territories for the Republican seem to be The Philippines, Poland and Nigeria, although even there it is close. He still has an outside chance in India, apparently, and is a little way behind in China. But, even if we put those two demographic behemoths in the swing-state camp it would seem Bush has already lost the election for leader of the world.
Sadly for the French, the Germans and the rest, they don't pick the US president. If they did, I suppose, we would never have had Ronald Reagan; instead we would have had 16 years of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale.
But the world's incomprehension is now palpable. Not only is Kerry not beating Bush by a margin as wide as the Atlantic and Pacific, he appears to be steadily losing.
An average of six national opinion polls taken since September 10 gives Bush a five-point advantage over his challenger, the most durable lead any candidate has had since the beginning of the year.
All the more bewildering for the rest of the world, and for Europeans in particular, is that Bush's gains seem to be solidifying even as the war in Iraq turns uglier. Car bombings, kidnappings, beheadings – and all the time Bush's appeal to Americans edges up. How can this be?
There are a couple of comforting explanations the world likes to reach for in these circumstances. The first is that Americans are stupid. There is not much one can say to this old prejudice except that, for a stupid people, the Americans have done some clever things over the years.
Little ones such as devising the separation of powers and defeating communism and Nazism. Big ones such as becoming the most successful economy in the history of the planet.
A second, only slightly less implausible, explanation is that it is all the fault of complaisant, patriotic US media too intimidated or too fawning to challenge the hated Bush. If only the Americans had the benefits of the clear-eyed perspicacity and guts of, say, the famously independent-minded French, German or Russian press, they would not be bamboozled into supporting the President.
This argument from false consciousness takes only a moment to measure against the objective facts: whatever else Dan Rather and CBS were doing this month when they used forged documents to accuse Bush of lying about his days in the National Guard it was not offering him fealty.
I think I can provide help for the nonplussed. There are at least two good reasons why Bush now enjoys a small but potentially decisive advantage over his opponent.
First, Americans are not eager to vote for a candidate of the studied fickleness of Kerry. Trying to figure out where he stands – not just on any issue, but the biggest issue of all, the Iraq war – is like trying to mould water.
He voted for the war but against the money to prosecute it. He said the US was safer without Saddam Hussein in power, but said the US was less safe as a result of the war. He said that even if he had known in 2002 there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq he would still have voted to use force, and this week he said that no one could possibly think, given what we now know, that it was right to have gone to war in Iraq.
No wonder the rest of the world wants this man as US president. There would be a vacancy for global leadership if he were to win.
A Kerry victory would not change that much in terms of US policy anyway. I have no doubt the Democrat is at heart a peacenik in the European mould, but his campaign, mindful of the views of most Americans, has done its best to hide that – hence the circumlocutions.
But, more important, far from being dumb or credulous, Americans see all too clearly what is at stake in Iraq. They understand that the war there is a necessary evil to remove a greater one.
They remember what Saddam's regime was really like; not the slightly distasteful but really rather stable and reliable one of popular European myth, but the terrorism-supporting, lawless thuggery whose ambitions were to be written in the blood of Americans, British, Israelis and anyone who co-operated with them.
And they see, even more clearly than before, the kind of people we are now fighting in Iraq. When police recruits are blown up and helpless hostages beheaded, Americans understand that the right response is not to blame their President but to take the war to the evil cowards who did it.
Good one, CW! Nothing like a little sarcasm and ridicule to put things into perspective!
(Glad to see you're still posting; it's been a while since we've chatted.)
Grant this guy American citizenship now! He passes the sanity test!
Hi lancer.
We've got ourselves a real president in George W. Bush!
" instead we would have had 16 years of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale" Oh my God, imagine that nightmare ..Ohhh brother , I can't even stay on that though for too long .
That presumes that the USSR(remember them?) would not have moved aggressively to exploit American weakness.
That is a typically naive liberal delusion.
And he speaks for a lot of people around the world who see what is at stake and who know America is right to push for democracy in and around the Middle East. People who look at a map can see what is happening.
Israel
Afghanistan
Iraq
Pakistan
India
Lybia
The world is against Bush because Bush is forcing the world to own up to the problems facing it.
Europe has never had any guts for anything but developing perverted forms of goverment such as communism, nazism, facisim. I mean if European rulers can't get rich or powerful off of it then they are not interested.
John
Beheadings are ghastly acts but real Americans arent frightened by them ,they are more determined to dispose of those commiting the act.
America is not like Spain , If we get a train blown up here we want to take the fight to those who blew it up.Not make a deal with them.
A terrorist incident in this country before the election wil not help the fawning,Kiss butt Kerry. We all hope it doesnt come ,but if it does we will choose a man that will and has taken the fight to the terrorists George Bush.
What a great article! We all need to acquire Foster's Lager by the case, buy Ugg boots by the truckload, and patronize any movies or TV shows which feature Nicole Kidman, Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe, Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, Paul Hogan, and any other Aussie actors we can think of.
As someone pointed out in another thread, only the Aussies have stood with us in every conflict since WWII.
Seeing as Putin is reverting back to his old KGB days, isn't it about time for him to change back to the country's old name?
but don't you think this is a huge indictment for where the rest of the world is AT? they are either incredibly jealous or have been brainwashed into co-dependency -- having no limits, no boundaries on what they they will fight for... or...it could be that whomever wrote the original "hit piece" and did the survey....hates the US so much, it wasn't tough to find the tallly they desired.
Great find! Clear thinkers are scarce, especially abroad.Love the way he uses that pesky logic to refute the arrogant and effete Euros and their adherents.
There are still countries that 'get it.'The non-EU minds of Britain.
Most of Australia.
Poland.
Perhaps, as they are hit by terrorism themselves, certain others may begin to more completely 'get it.'
India.
Russia.
Please don't get carried away. The writer is the exception even in somewhat-friendly-to America Australia.
Heh, heh. I wonder if Baker has a reputation as the Mark Steyn of the Southern Hemisphere.
Not quite accurate.
The Aussies are the only people who have been with us in EVERY war in the LAST 100 YEARS!
Polls consistently show the majority (over 50%) of Aussies are opposed to US/Bush policies, and especially the war in Iraq.
The MSM can always find the answers they want.
CBS's campaign to get Kerry elected has put a chill on their reach and ability to suck people into America bashing.
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