Obamarama Abroad

It appears that there has been quite the fanfare for Obama's current trip abroad. He is spending time in the Middle East (including Iraq and Afghanistan) and Europe. As proof of how much stir his trip has caused, all three major American newscasters (Couric, Charlie Gibson, and Brian Williams) have gone abroad to follow Obama on his trip which means that they will broadcast from his location for the duration of the trip. McCain has not been met by any such brigade of prominent newscasters during his trips abroad.

I think this excitement surrounding Obama's trip abroad is a strong signifier that Obama will be popular internationally as president. His global appeal will be a huge asset to his presidency and should be pushed as a strong argument as to why Americans should support him. I believe that Americans tend to underrate the importance of a potential president's global appeal -- in today's ever increasingly global world, it is more important than ever for the American Head of State to be someone well-liked and well-respected (didn't we learn this harsh reality durin the Bush years???). One of the best classes I have taken here at UCLA was a seminar on foreign impressions of America during which we would host a speaker from a different country every week. The speakers often discussed how people from their home countries viewed Americans and our leaders -- a lot of which was negative, but not hopeless. These speakers made me realize how interconnected our world was by how easily they spoke of academic, social, and political situations in areas in all corners of the world. Unfortunately, they also reinforced how little my fellow students and I knew about the world outside our own country and about important it is to have positive dynamics between countries. With what I learned from this class in mind, I placed one's global appeal as a top characteristic priority of whichever candidate I would support. I believe Obama has the potentional to improve our relationships with other nations and command a higher level of respect in the international community, which is necessary in our world of globalization.

As an example of Obama's global appeal, a poll from England showed that Obama is five times as popular as McCain in England. FIVE TIMES!



More about the European mania over Obama http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/german-press-agog-over-obama/index.html?nl=pol&emc=pola1