The independent Russian media is certainly not dead. That is the only conclusion one can draw of this editorial comparison of the leadership styles of President-elect Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, from the Russian newspaper, Gazeta.
The Gazeta editorial not only praises the stake that average Americans have in the political life of the U.S., it frontally attacks recent electoral reforms in Russia that are designed to have the completely opposite effect in their country.
Pointing out that the two young leaders gave major speeches on the same day - Obama his electoral victory speech and Medvedev his first ’state of the union’ address, The Gazeta editorial says in part:
“Except that Obama addressed fifty million supporters who voted for him, while Medvedev spoke to a thousand legislators, governors, and bureaucrats.”
“When Obama repeated time and again, ‘we,’ ‘us,’ ‘our climb,’ ‘our goals,’ regardless of how sincere these words were, his listeners believed them: “we” - this is the people, the citizens of the United States. It is the citizens, the regular people that the new leader appeals to. They’re the ones who now have “the chance to make change.” And the words that “it can’t happen without you” seemed quite obvious to them.
“But Dmitriy Medvedev couldn’t have said in the Kremlin ‘It will not happen without you,’ even to his select audience. Because after all, even this narrow circle would have been too wide for such comments. Decisions here are made by a far smaller number of people. … The individual opinion of an ordinary person (unlike his abstract “rights and freedoms”) is definitely not about to be taken into account by those at the ‘top.’”
A truly extraordinary editorial from what many Westerners consider a completely tamed Russian press.
Despite the saber rattling of Russian President Medvedev the day after Senator Obama’s election as president, one shouldn’t get the impression that Russians haven’t been moved by the meaning and symbolism of his rise to prominence.
In fact, according to this editorial from Vedomosti, one of Russia’s leading business dailies, the reality of a President-elect Obama is a strong signal to Europeans and Russians that it’s time to get with the program - and confront their own prejudices.
“With Obama’s victory, the societies of other countries with large racial and ethnic minority populations, in particular France and Britain, will reconsider the possibility of electing non-White leaders.”
“The majority of ethnic Russian citizens in our country are against someone of a different nationality heading the government. Russia has yet to internalize the possibility of the emergence of a ‘non-Russian’ and non-Eastern Orthodox president. … However, beginning today, the question of skin color and the access of ethnic minorities to government control will recede into the background.”
OBAMA STANDS NEXT TO A CAR LABELED ‘IRAQ’ POINTING TO THE CAR, THE IRAQI MAN SAYS TO OBAMA: ‘THAT IS WHAT YOUR PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION DID. WE’VE BEEN SUFFERING FOR FIVE YEARS. CAN YOU FIX IT?!’ [Sotal Iraq, Iraq]
“Among the changes that are casting a shadow on the Iraqi arena, there are many positive signs. If Iraq’s political can take advantage of these circumstances by organizing a united Iraqi national movement aimed at ending the occupation, rejecting sectarian quotas, this could form the basis for translating the intentions of the new American administration into acts that would be in the interest of our nation and its people and once and for all, bring an end to the Iraqi crisis.”
The tidal wave of global reaction to the election of President-elect Barack Obama is enough to make a foreign desk editor cry over what to do next. Coming later today will be articles from Russia and Iraq. Here are just a few of the many stories posted on WORLDMEETS.US in the past 24 hours:
“The arrival today of the first man of color to the apex of power in the only global superpower testifies to the logic of this country and its evolution. Once again, America was ready. … Freedom is that which has allowed both slavery and its eradication; the assertion of civil rights and the existence of the Ku Klux Klan; the many ’success stories’ of ’self-made men,’ and the absence of the social state. Whoever is in power in America, this will remain at the heart of the country’s psyche.”
“Economically, culturally and militarily, the notion that the strongest must stand alone has been shown to be absurd. Cooperation rather than confrontation and negotiation rather than dictation are the new and astounding ideas embodied by Obama. … Obama in no magician - and McCain would have been less so - but he has one great advantage: He can, since he isn’t committed to a rigid doctrine and doesn’t believe himself to be on a divine mission (like Bush has), act according to rational and pragmatic reasoning. He can finally reestablish a government based on reality - no matter how bleak that may be once initiated.”
“”Let us not be stingy with our pleasure; good news is pretty rare these days. And when we use the word “us,” we mean the near-totality of the rest of the world, who were worried that we would not be seconded in our passion for Barack Obama by the American voters on Election Day.”
“Obama is the President of the United States that the planet requires. Yet paradoxically, this doesn’t necessarily imply that an Obama presidency is the best thing for United States society. … one must wonder whether the society of that country, and above all, the United States Congress, will agree. Why? Because what Obama wants to do is make the United States somewhat similar to a European welfare state, and it’s likely, sooner or later, that United Statesiens [people of the United States] will turn their back on such a project. In fact, even though the country is one of the most advanced, it has the greatest inequality in terms of wealth distribution and has never had a viable and durable social-democratic party.”
Is Barack Obama the antidote to eight years of George W. Bush? Anyone reading this editorial from Iran’s state-controlled Tehran Times would certainly get that impression. Unquestionably, Tehran is even more pleased than most Obama fans about the President-elect’s success. The editorial asks and answers: ‘And why was Obama the world’s candidate? Quite simply, because they feel they can talk to him.’ The winds of dialogue are surely blowing. Now to see what comes of it …
One of the most historic, gut wrenching and globally-important U.S. elections ever is finally drawing to a close, and along with Americans, the world, too, is summing up what it all means. And the one underlying and inescapable narrative is this: That the most powerful nation on earth appears ready to look past the issue of race and - on the merits of character and capability - elect Senator Barack Obama as President.
“Never in its recent history, has America been on the verge of electing a candidate as personally and intellectually exceptional as Barack Obama, a man who would be the most equipped to address the dual challenge of reconciling Americans with themselves - and America with the rest of the world. Never has the American dream been raised as high and embodied so spectacularly by a candidate who is in fact of mixed race, even if he is already improperly described as the future first Black president in the history of the United-States. … Is there another country in the world capable of surpassing prejudice, stereotypes and racism to hand power to the equivalent of what is represented in the United States by Barack Obama?”
At the moment, the nation of Venezuela, governed [or ruled] by Bush’s arch-enemy Hugo Chavez, is one of America’s top suppliers of crude oil. So what do Venezuelans think an Obama presidency would be like?
“Obama will look for a way to liberate his economy from the tyranny of oil, even at the cost of his own automotive and energy industries. He will entrust supply only to time-tested friends like Canada and Mexico, which will be detrimental to only one Latin American country [Venezuela]. As for foreign trade: It was Clinton [a Democrat] who won final approval of NAFTA, so Columbia still has many possibilities. [Colombia is waiting for Washington to approve a similar agreement with them].”
