When Sri Murtiningsi asked her third graders what they wanted to be when they grew up, the answers ranged from doctors to a pilot. One boy in the class raised his hand: Barack Obama said his dream was to be president of the United States.
Forty years later Murtiningsi – like the rest of the world – is watching closely as Americans prepare to head to the polls Tuesday.
“Barry was the only one who said he wanted to be president,” Murtiningsi said of Obama, who spent four years living in Indonesia as a child. “I hope his dream comes true.”
Many believe Obama’s international experience would go a long way in helping repair damage caused by the unpopular U.S.-led war in Iraq, with recent opinion polls from more than 70 nations favoring him a resounding three-to-one over Republican John McCain.
Newspapers across the globe came out in support of the Democratic candidate Monday.
So, um, anything interesting going on today?
Prayers for you all.
I always fear this kind of reporting with its quite accurate assessment of opinion overseas, namely that other nations very much want Americans to elect Barack Obama. Americans hate others telling them what to do in their own internal affairs. Secondly, there is a streak of US xenophobia or at least, dislike of transatlantic liberals – remember the snide remarks about John Kerry’s French connections and his excellent spoken French? So I do hope that there will be no backlash against Obama on these doubtful grounds.
One of the most annoying media-isms. How can one reach a ‘growing’ or ‘getting gradually louder’?
Obama’s international experience? Oh come now… Obama is big on image and short on substance. Attractive, personable, and warm is what the world is attracted to and let’s face it, John McCain appears downright bellicose. Obama appears to be far more cosmopolitan, given his mixed racial ancestry, his having lived in Indonesia as a child, and even his name, but the fact is that his absolute naivete will complicate matters in the Middle East; his stated openess to dialogue with the extremisst in the Middle East might be interpreted by us and mcuh of the world as a new diplomacy but will be regarded as weakness by those extremists; and while his somewhat socialist rhetoric has everyone in western Europe smiling, in the end it will lead to nothing more than empty promises for American workers and for the rest of the world. Elect Obama? Sure, if your goal is to transform the US into a 21st century European nation.