If Europeans could vote in the US election one week from today, the outcome would closely resemble that of the Economist’s world voting map.
But nonsensical claims of socialism, marxism and ‘defeat’ from the US far right aside, an Obama presidency will quite likely surprise many Europeans, John Vinocur writes in the International Herald Tribune.
The realities of American interests, American responsibilities and the American presidency mean that all the soft power instincts and readiness for multilateral mosh-pit politicking attributed to Obama by Europeans can quickly look imaginary.
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Obama is not Michael Moore transmogrified. He will fulfill no one’s dreams of a capitulating, apologetic United States.
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This article is actually favourable to Obama in these last days before the election as he needs to make it extra clear to his own supporters that he will promote US interests and the interests of US citizens first and foremost.
I agree, which is why most on the far right consider anything published in the NY Times (and by extension the IHT) as leftist cheerleading.
Most reasonable critiques of a possible Obama presidency point to a fairly middle-of-the-road approach, particularly in foreign policy.
Realistically, I think the EU as a whole (and its individual leaders) would be more than happy to see a president who would ask first and shoot later.
Fact of the matter is that the US is not the number one superpower in the world right now. Dubya made sure of that. It is rather like Don Fanucci, just waiting to be taken care of.
So I expect to see Obama (if he wins) to resort – not unlike Vito Corleone – to persuasion backed by a still-mighty military force (like Clinton’s attack on Sudan or Serbia), rather than using unnecessary violence.
Not just the EU, but the entire world will be happier with “ask first, shoot later.”
I don’t envision Obama using unnecessary violence either, but in the bigger picture, US foreign Policy won’t change that much. Since the end of WWII, the US has made a significant military excursion about every 14 or 15 months on average, republican or democrat, in all corners of the world. There’s no reason to believe that that streak will end.