Tuesday, November 11, 2008
First Global: A Personal View on 2008 Election
Jeremy Zogby, a First Global and active commentator at our blog, wrote two opinion pieces on the 2008 election (see the links in the right-hand column). One piece describes his own Obama experience throughout the entire election and the other piece focuses on the bond/connection he perceives between Obama and the First Globals. How similar or different is your election experience compared to Jeremy’s? Do you want to share your election stories with us? Do you agree with him that Obama is the first “First Global” president?
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2 days before the election I remember seeing a news piece on the international herald tribune about people throughout Europe planning for all-night parties. It seemed to me an over exaggeration. But that same day I was invited to one of these bashes at a pub and there were hundreds of people, including the Foreign Minister. So people were watching and had strong opinions. I have met those who support McCain. These are traditional conservatives, and some also liked him because they like the idea of a military candidate who will be tough on Russia (many Czechs have never forgotten about the 1968 Russian tank invasion which smashed a huge protest by dissenters in Prague).
Just yesterday I was speaking with a Czech woman. And by no means is she the only one who feels this way, but she, as well as many others, sees the election of Obama as America trying to cleanse itself of not only some dark periods in our history, but as well as the last 8 years. She said after 2004, she vowed not to visit the states, but now she will go.
So interestingly enough, this election was important for a lot of the world. After speaking with many I get the sense that people still have hope that the U.S. can live up to its ideals. And electing Obama, in their view, is a sign of the U.S. "getting back on track."
It also shows that the rest of the world that the U.S. has a tendency towards progressiveness. The election is something Americans can be proud of, because I can't think of a country in the EU, for example, where a citizen of African, Arab, or Roma descent would have a chance of being elected.
"I can't think of a country in the EU, for example, where a citizen of African, Arab, or Roma descent would have a chance of being elected."
How many of them have degrees from Columbia and Harvard?
(correction to spelling error: their)Hey Jeremy, this is your cuz, Paul. Glad to be the first to give you some feedback regarding part one of your perspective.
As everyone knows, there are several real tough decisions Barack Obama has to make, immediately, when he sits in that Oval Office. The very first thing he needs to do, in my opinion, is establish a plan to put our economy back on track. Would you agree? It's not going to be an easy thing for him to accomplish and I doubt that his plan will magically fix all the economic problems immediately. The economy is a huuuuge part of the foundation of this country that cannot continue to crumble any longer. Hopefully, we've already seen most of the iceberg, as opposed to only it's tip...
Here's a question for you:
As you are living in Prague now, have you talked to anyone about their opinion of the recent U.S. Presidential Election? What were their thoughts about Barack Obama being the 44th President of the U.S.?
"How many of them have degrees from Columbia and Harvard?"
I am sure very few of them do. An even better question is how many of them study at the top universities within a given EU country. Compare this with the united states, and the author's point is even more true.
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