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Europeans (Mis)Understand John McCain’s Appeal to US Voters

Posted by JOERG WOLF in Media.
Aug 30th, 2008 | Comments

The Economist has a good cover story about John McCain and explains quite well why Americans might elect him as president. It is a good summary for the average reader, who is not a news junkie.

Such an analysis is missing in the commentary of a Washington correspondent with the German public broadcaster ARD: Anna Engelke fails to understand McCain’s appeal. Instead she makes a list of problems for McCain (his age, the bad shape of US economy, high debts and deficit, two wars) and concludes that a skilled politician like Barack Obama has to lead in the polls, if you take a “sober look at it.”

She mentions only two reasons why Obama does not have a strong lead in the polls: It might be partly due to his inexperience, but it is primarily due to his black skin. Engelke opines that Obama would win this election “with the utmost probability,” if he were white.

And then she mentions that cab driver in Denver and that 80 year old in Houston, i.e. the (un)typical characters some journalists like to use as reference for their arguments, when they are too lazy to look up opinion polls or interview experts. Anna Engelke’s commentary is titled “Latenter Rassimus bei US-Wahl” (Latent Racism Could Decide US Election).

Sure, racism does exist in the United States and opinion polls do not reflect racist sentiments accurately, because Americans do not want to appear racist, but: A politician like Obama probably would not have much of a chance to be elected chancellor. Yes, latent racism could decide the US elections, but so can a dozen other factors. Engelke’s failure to consider those other factors shows once again the lack of understanding among Germany’s correspondents in the United States. Watch the video statement by Rüdiger Lentz of German TV in Washington:

In US presidential elections, Europeans tend to overwhelmingly support the Democratic candidate. Yet, Europe misplaced its bets in both 2000 and 2004. The qualities that Europeans value in a US president are not the same ones that matter to Americans. Europe should tone down its expectations, and come to terms with the possibility of another GOP presidency.

It would be great if German journalists would read the Economist and travel across the United States rather than stay at the East and West coasts. Hm, perhaps they do that already, but do not dare to ask too much of their readers by making complicated arguments and therefore talk about race?

Anna Engelke’s commentary was published on the website of Germany’s premier TV news program Tagesschau, which has recently also published an article by Michael Castritius (German, English) explaining the success of Jamaican sprinters at the Olympics with the history of slavery: Only the strongest men and women were taken from Africa to the new world. Only the strongest survived this hellish journey. Then they gained strong muscles working on the sugar plantations and the owners made them have sex with each other, says Castritius. Therefore Jamaican sprinters are now winning Olympic gold medals. If think it is not necessary to point out the many flaws in this line of argument to our smart readers. Via Spreeblick.

What’s going on over at Tagesschau.de? Why this strange focus on race? German tax-payers’ money at their best. Why don’t they feature only sound analyses like The Economist?

Cross-posted from Atlantic Review

  • superdestroyer
    I doubt if elites in Europe were ever understand the view of middle class, private sector employed whites in the U.S. It is just not Senator Obama (Ivy leaguers, private school with dhildren in private school) who they do not trust. They have been the targets of the Democratic Party for decades. The Democratic Party wants them to pay high taxes, wants to tell them where to live, what to drive, that they cannot own a gun, want to bus their children across town, and what them to shut up about going to church.

    Senator Obama and the Democrats would be winning in a rout if they could figure out a way to appeal to the middle class without hurting their core groups such as blacks, Hispanics, elite whites, public sector employees, and the teachers unions. However, when SEnator Obama makes it quite clear that the teachers unions are more important than academic learning in public schools (but not private schools) he loses support.
  • Americans have grown spoiled over the last two generations. A significant majority have grown comfortable with the idea of government programs providing bennies to them, but at the same time they don't care to be discomfited by having to pony up higher taxes to pay for all this largess. The Democrats were always willing to hand out the goodies, but were always ready to tax us more heavily. Once the Republicans decided to abandon their smaller government ways and hop on the big spending bandwagon, but still stuck to their policy of always cutting taxes, they won over tons of voters. Of course, the bills on those policies are coming due, and that might explain the success Democrats are seeing in the polls this year.

    Europeans, in so many of their countries, have grown up with ultimate nanny states who hand out virtually everything to the detriment of their economies. It's no surprise to me that they would relate to the Democrats more readily. They also tend to have a lot less of a racial and religious divide than the lingering ones we find here. All of this is just IMHO of course.
  • @ Jazz

    "Europeans, in so many of their countries, have grown up with ultimate nanny states who hand out virtually everything to the detriment of their economies."

    Please tell me that you tried to make a joke. I hope your understanding of Europe is a bit better than this.
  • No generalization holds true across all borders, Joerg, but it's certainly an image that we are regularly fed here in America. Amsterdam's legions of homeless drug users, social programs in France which bordered on socialism for a while. Other nations, of course, are nearly the opposite, such as Germany. Point is, you're free to educate us to the contrary, but it is certainly the imagery we grow up seeing in the American media.
  • OMG. Earth to Jazz. Please take a look at THIS. (dollar vs. euro). I think you have it exactly wrong. American businesses are in trouble and a big part of it is health care costs. On single-payer health care alone (part of the nanny state®) Europeans pay less than half what we do for better health by every measure.

    Their economies are stronger and debt far lower because of our corporate nanny state, in which we borrow massively from China ($1 billion a DAY) and hand it out as pork, waste it on wars of choice and lavish it on companies through tax "incentives" and government giveaways to those least in need.
  • @ Jazz

    "Point is, you're free to educate us to the contrary, but it is certainly the imagery we grow up seeing in the American media."

    Feel free to educate yourself. ;-)

    Don't wait for the European socialist nannies to take care of all your educational needs like.
  • Davebo
    Jazz, I've got to agree with others here, you have a very unrealistic concept of Europeans.

    Homeless drug users in Amsterdam? Have you ever visited?
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