How the World Sees Palin—and Us
If you don’t give a hoot about how the rest of the world views our country, proceed no further. If you have a little bit of curiosity as to what other people, other countries think of us, then join me in taking a look at such views.
As a translator for WatchingAmerica.com, I scan the Dutch and Spanish newspapers for articles that, when translated, will give Americans a feeling of how Europeans (and others) see our elections, our candidates, and our nation. Other translators at Watching America translate similar articles from a number of other languages from around the world.
The newest entry into the elections melee, Sarah Palin, has in particular drawn a lot of attention and a lot of press abroad.
Scanning the most recent articles about Palin at Watching America, one notices a lot of curiosity about Sarah Palin, a lot of skepticism, some apprehension, but also some hope—and humor.
Let’s look at some of these:
In “John McCain‘s Folly,” the Al Rai, Jordan, writes on September 12:
U.S. Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s choice of Ms Sarah Palin as his running mate in the coming November election is rife with risk.
For starters, Palin is unknown to most Americans, even though she has been governor of Alaska since 2006. She is an extreme conservative on several issues, especially those which concern women, which distances her from moderate Republicans, let alone the Democrats whose support McCain is courting… But what is riskiest is that Palin is completely lacking in experience in international politics and several politicians question how this woman can fill the vacant seat of the nation’s President should McCain die during his term, especially given that he is over 72 years old…
In an article that needs no translation, “Forget the row about lipstick. It’s Sarah Palin’s politics that matter,” today’s edition of the U.K.’s The Guardian starts as follows:
To many Europeans, especially of a liberal bent, the emergence of Sarah Palin as one of the dominant forces in American politics is a cause for dismay. At first glance she seems to represent the triumph of the personal over the political. Her looks are remarked upon, her fashions critiqued. For supporters her status as a mother of five is touted as her greatest virtue. For others the Palin family is a source of sniping gossip.
And, The Guardian warns:
This is to overlook the substance of her beliefs. Palin represents an extreme form of conservatism. She is not just anti-abortion, she opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest. And Palin supports the introduction of creationist ideas into the classroom, alongside evolution. She is sceptical of global warming, only recently accepting that human activities might play a role, flying in the face of vast bodies of scientific opinion – even the US government’s own advisers. She is pro-drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive areas in a world that needs to wean itself away from fossil fuels. Her grasp of foreign policy is limited to a series of hawkish and naive soundbites on Russia, terrorism and Iran.
And concludes:
America has had eight years of a government that has held similar views. The result has been to put ideological and emotional distance between it and large parts of Europe, Asia and Latin America….America needs a friendlier world to do economic and political business…The political beliefs exemplified by Palin and her fellow religious conservatives are not the answer, no matter how well presented by her considerable political skills. Change is the watchword of the American election. But McCain, in putting Palin on his ticket, is trying to pull off an audacious con trick. Palin does not represent change, but more of the same. And then some.
Also this weekend, The Observer, looks at the Alaska Governor, but in the context of her pregnant teenage daughter. The Observer introduces its lengthy article “How a small US town hailed its teen mums,” as follows:
High-school pregnancies, once a mark of shame, have become a badge of honour – and proved no barrier to Sarah Palin’s campaign. The new mood, fostered by Bush’s family and economic policies, is not confined to the rural South, but is apparent even in affluent Massachusetts. Now many fear the trend is threatening to erode hard-won women’s rights.
As to the latter, The Observer writes:
According to Mike Males, the Palin pregnancy has highlighted the broader cultural attack on women’s rights from both ends of the political spectrum. On the one hand, it has been used by liberals to emphasise the need for sex education, birth control and a woman’s right to choose. On the other hand, said Males, the issue of teen pregnancy has also been exploited by rightwingers: ‘There’s a deliberate demonisation of teenagers in order to impose restrictions on behaviour they deem unacceptable. In that way the Republicans can promote their own socially conservative agenda.’
Germany’s Nürnberger Nachrichten takes a look at the “boundless hysteria” in “Growing Doubts About “Sarah Superstar” :
The very first “Sarah Palin” Barbie doll design already exists. It shows the 44-year old Governor from Alaska in high heels and a tight black cocktail dress, with shoulder arms and a snowmobile as accessory.
Currently, the “Sarah Superstar” hysteria seems to know no boundaries in the United States – a hysteria that also affects politics
Palin’s “half-truths” and other more “juicy” comments have also not gone unnoticed by the German newspaper:
In her speech in St. Paul, Palin also claimed that she had saved the tax payer a lot of money by selling her predecessor’s company jet on Ebay. By now, this statement has been discovered not to be true… And then there are reports from ear witnesses who supposedly heard Sarah Palin publicly use improper language when talking about political rivals. She is reported to have called Hillary Clinton a “bitch” at the top of her voice while dining in a restaurant, and to have used the word “sambo” to describe Barack Obama – a term that, especially among African-Americans, is considered extremely pejorative.
In the South Korean JoongAng Daily‘s, “An Unverified Palin,” we read more about Palin’s celebrity status and how “Governor Palin has performed one great act for the public – reading the teleprompter.” :
A star is born. She must feel like Lord Byron who said, “I woke up one morning and found myself famous.” She is indeed a Cinderella in glass slippers. Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, emerged as the star of America with an acceptance speech to be John McCain’s running mate at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.
And,
Romans used to go crazy when a young white gladiator appeared in the Coliseum, where gladiators were mostly old and non-white. Senator Obama became a star with a speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, but he is running for president because he passed the rigorous verification process of a long primary. Verification of Governor Palin has only begun.
The JoongAng Daily‘s editorial writer and traveling correspondent concludes with the admonishment:
The U.S. presidential election is too serious for the country to be on a roller coaster ride because of a single, unverified vice presidential nominee. We Koreans know too well how reckless it is to ignore content and make a choice based on image alone.
With the ominous title, “Palin Willing to Wage War Against Russia,” The Finnish publication, Iltalehti, reports in its September 12 edition on Palin’s interview by ABC-News:
Palin was grilled with questions on foreign policy. Palin explained she believes in “God’s great plan for the world” and emphasized a strict policy towards Russia. Palin also thinks Goergia and Ukraine should be granted NATO membership. “We must keep an eye on Russia,” the Alaskan governor said, but added in the same breath that she hopes the U.S. avoids another era of Cold War.
When asked if the U.S. would wage war on Russia if Georgia was a NATO member and Russia invaded it Palin responded, “Maybe so.” “I mean that according to the NATO-articles the U.S. would have a duty to defend Georgia, even by starting a war against Russia”
Believe it or not, there is also a little bit of political humor in the foreign press when discussing our elections. The lead paragraph in the Brazilian O Globo‘s story, “Palin ‘Shuffles the Cards‘ of the U.S. Campaign,” says it all:
Attack a woman like Palin, and the result is to turn her into a victim of machismo, sexism, prejudice, etc. Turn your back on her, and you will emerge with a beautiful bite on your behind.
But there are also more sober and objective assessments of the U.S. elections in the foreign press. For example, in the Dutch De Telegraaf in “Obama’s Land or McCain’s Land,” we read:
Obama was previously a community worker, fresh out of Harvard. “But in the United States, one does not win elections with that,” they say there. Perhaps it is the same with McCain‘s POW experience in Vietnam, where he really learned to love America. It is thus really hawk against dove, right against left, red against blue, anti-abortion against liberalism.
Both parties have nominated unlikely candidates, who want to bring an end to the polarization in Washington and to the influence of big money. Obama shows understanding towards opponents of abortion. McCain wants to have Democrats in his cabinet. The campaign also reflects a changed America. The influence of citizens, united by the Internet, has never been greater.
Traditional stereotyping is being pushed to the side: Obama stands for a “post-racial“ generation that has left discrimination behind. And Republicans have launched a feminist icon with their working anti-abortion-mother Palin.
There are sufficient signs to believe that it is possible that America will take a step forward with the next president.
Finally, this compendium would not be complete without mentioning an outrageous and hilarious (assuming the two adjectives can co-exist) article in Russia’s Pravda (The same newspaper that claimed John McCain was an Egyptian. Apparently Pravda confused the Panama Canal Zone with the Suez Canal Zone–see “Can Egyptian Born McCain Be President?”)
Here are some quotes from Pravda’s “Palin —the Devil in disguise”:
The candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United States of America, whose experience in small town politics, mothers´day [sic] dos and the local hockey club is her claim to fame, threatened to open the gates of Hell by attacking Russia in the event of another invasion of Georgia in a televised interview on ABC (shown today). One question for this self-opinionated upstart: Do you know what a nuclear holocaust is?
Sarah Palin, Mrs. Nobody know-it-all shrieking [sic] cow from Alaska, the joke of American politics, plied with a couple of vodkas before letting rip in front of incredulous audiences while McCain coos in the background, cuts a ridiculous figure as she strives to be taken seriously.
So Sarah Palin, Mrs. Hockey Mom housewife-cum-small-town gossip merchant and cheap little guttersnipe, suppose you shut up and allowed real politicians and diplomats to do their work? Threatening Russia with a war is perhaps the most irresponsible thing anyone could do at this moment in time. Have you any idea what a nuclear holocaust is? Have you any notion of the power of Russia’s armed forces? Did you know that Russia has enough missiles to destroy any target anywhere on Earth in seconds?
And have you not forgotten, you pith-headed little bimbo from the back of beyond, that small detail about the slaughter of Russian citizens by Georgians, which started the whole debacle? So next time suppose you keep your mouth shut and while you’re at it, make sure the members of your family keep their legs shut too. Your country has enough failed mothers as it is.
For those who have stuck with me this far, there is one redeeming piece in the Pravda article: a picture, and it is not of Sarah Palin.
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