MIKE THE WRITER IS FOR OBAMA:
SO ARE MOST EUROPEANS, BUT WHY DO MEDIA PUNDITS SEE THAT AS A DOWNSIDE?
I'm back from Germany where I've become known as Mike the Writer. It
used to be that many people got their surnames from their father or the
profession they pursued, as in Heinrich von Furstenberg or Jan Bauer
(read that as farmer).
However, with the advent of Joe the Plumber, Europeans now use the
more direct appellation, and since I am a long time card holder of the
Writers Guild of America, I deferred to my German hosts when they asked
if it was okay to call me Mike the Writer (though I'd always preferred
Michael).
I watched the last presidential debate in the middle of the night
and related my bleary-eyed thoughts to HuffPost readers. But later it
occurred to me I ought to follow-up concerning the media-generated
notion that it was damaging to a presidential campaign if foreign folks
wanted their candidate to win.
Why would that be, I wondered? It's not as if these world citizens
suddenly had the right to vote or could effect any direct muscle to
convince my fellow Americans. We still have secret elections except in
the case of absentee ballots, which can be filled in by anyone in the
household. However, to my mind it's very significant so many foreign
nationals, in particular from countries with which we have long been
allies, find the current style of political leadership abhorrent and
long for change across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
It is very important to sense the discord abroad concerning the
bullying tactics exercised by those who direct our government. Not only
related to the unnecessary and costly Iraq War, but also how our
economic policies have had a domino effect decimating the finances of
the world economy.
If there have been huge crowds for Barack Obama throughout his
summer tour of Europe and scant indication of support for John McCain,
why should this outrage us rather than inform us? It's not as if the
Germans, French and English are totalitarian in outlook. They are as
democratic as we are, and in the case of the French and Germans they
have elected relatively conservative governments.
Still, the Europeans who elected them recognize a rotten apple and
sense that John McCain, for all his purported maverick style, has sold
out to appeal to those who didn't buy his more reform-oriented image
when he tried for the presidency in 2000. These residents of the world
community are frightened to death that a continuation of the George W.
Bush policies will wreak havoc spiritually and economically and are not
convinced that McCain and Palin will somehow provide a dissimilar
approach to the GOP brand.
Whether it's the possibility of social and economic policies
revamped by an almost certain right-wing majority on the Supreme Court
or the presumption that the United States will continue to go its own
way with little regard for its so-called allies, the people of our
planet are wary. Make that quite a bit frightened at the prospect of
more of the same which, John McCain represents. Indeed, any thought he
might be a different kind of Republican, one imbued with loads of
integrity he tries to convince us he has due to his long ago harrowing
experience in a Prisoner of War camp, was washed away with his absurd
selection of Sarah Palin to be next in line to lead our government.
So, take it from Mike the Writer, who spoke to lots of Germans in
the two weeks I was there, not to mention a number of foreign nationals
I met earlier this week while on the TKTS half-priced theater line in
Times Square. There is a strong and legitimate reason why those in
other countries have taken to heart the American polls as currently
defined. They are crossing their fingers and saying prayers in myriad
languages that the Gallup, CNN and New York Times readings are accurate.
Rather than think our foreign friends' hopeful anticipation is a bad
sign, it should give us more incentive to restore the love and respect
the world has long held for the United States. It should make us even
more inclined to get out the vote for Obama. We're part of the world,
aren't we and it's time we got back on track with our friends as true
partners engaged in a terrific future for all of mankind.
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