“In economics as in diplomacy, the most ideological administration in America’s modern history is about to end with a dramatic renunciation of the dogma it defended at its debut. … This is a tribute to American pragmatism, which remains their only true religion and allows them to burn the idols they worship before it’s too late.”
The negative turn taken by the McCain campaign over the past few weeks hasn’t escaped observers in other countries, and in fact has begun to elicit alarm.
“For Republicans, disarmed by the unpopularity of Mr. Bush and the financial doldrums, the color of Mr. Obama’s skin is becoming the only argument left for opposing the Democratic candidate. He is attacked not only because he’s Black, but because his father was a Kenyan, because he lived in Indonesia, and because his “middle name,” inherited from her paternal grandmother, is Hussein.
Republicans have little to say about Obama’s choices in the area of energy or his fiscal proposals. They tolerate and often encourage racist slander, xenophobic lies and venomous rumors prevalent amongst extreme right-wing bigots and “White supremacists.” If Mr. McCain wins under these conditions, violence will menace America. If Mr. Obama is elected against this resurgence of hate, hope will prevail, but fear will continue to loom.
Basing his thesis on a recent article from Slate magazine which psychoanalyzed the U.S. presidential candidates and President Bush, Jihad Al-Muhaisin of Jordan’s Al-Ghad newspaper concludes that the election of McCain would be “the greatest tragedy.”
Pointing out that like Bush, McCain - based on the work of famed Psychologist Carl Jung - is classified as an ‘Artisan’, Al-Muhaisin writes in part:
“Artisans are the world’s great risk-takers. … They delight in putting themselves in jeopardy, taking chances, and facing hazards … which applies to the Iraq War. That’s why these people should not be called upon, when times call for careful planning, or consistent, long-term management, because they may be careless about details.”
“People like him don’t reflect on their errors very much or analyze their mistakes to any great extent. It is difficult for them to learn from their errors, so they can become caught in a loop, repeating their mistakes.”
Quoting this article about McCain’s personality brings us to the main topic, which relates to his understanding of fields he’s supposed to be familiar with. The Republican candidate managed to demonstrate an “Artisanship” that doesn’t require knowledge, but rather stubbornness and foolish intransigence, which reminds one of the Arab proverb, “It’s a goat, even if it flies.”
[Editor’s Note: “It’s a goat, even if it flies” is an Arabic proverb describing a situation when, for example, you show a duck to someone and he tells you that it’s a goat. He keeps insisting that it’s a goat. Then the “goat” flies, and the man keeps insisting that it’s a goat, by saying :”It’s a goat even if it flies”].
This is why McCain thought that Spain is part of Latin America rather than being a European country. McCain was asked by a journalist whether he would meet Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero at the White House. He said that he would only welcome leaders of friendly countries to Washington, such as the president of Mexico.
The journalist asked again whether McCain was ready to receive Zapatero at the White House in the event he wins, and McCain replied: “Honestly, I have to analyze our relationships, situations and priorities, but I can assure you that I will establish closer relationships with our friends, and I will stand up to those who want to harm the United States.”
Barack Obama was endorsed today in an especially cogent editorial by the newspaper that is a monument to Joseph Pulitzer, who funded the prizes for excellence in American culture and established the Columbia School of Journalism.
Obama, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch declares, “is right on the issues. He was right on the war in Iraq. He is right that all Americans deserve access to health care and right in his pragmatic approach to meeting that goal. He is right on tax policy, infrastructure investment, energy policy and environmental issues. He is right on American ideals.
“He was right when he said in his remarkable speech in March in Philadelphia that ‘In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand: that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.’”
Noting that they had backed John McCain in the Republican primaries, the Post-Dispatch editors conclude that then McCain “became the incredible shrinking man. He shrank from his principled stands in favor of a humane immigration policy. He shrank from his universal condemnation of torture and his condemnation of the politics of smear.
“He even shrank from his own campaign slogan, ‘Country First,’ by selecting the least qualified running mate since the Swedenborgian shipbuilder Arthur Sewall ran as William Jennings Bryan’s No. 2 in 1896.”
“… TILL A LADY, PASSING BY, DID CHANCE TO SAY:
‘YOU CAN TELL A MAN WHO BOOZES BYTHE COMPANY HE CHOOSES,’ THEN THE PIG GOT UP AND SLOWLY WALKED AWAY …’
The apparent campaign implosion of the Republican Party nominee hasn’t escaped the rest of the world. The above graphic is from the British, while this article, which asks if Republicans are committing ’suicide,’ is from Colombia.
Hernán González Rodríguez of Colombia’s El Espectador - a self-professed fan of U.S. Republicans, not only berates the party for voting against its own President and McCain on the matter of the $700 billion emergency package, but he bemoans the selection of Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential nominee.
“As a Colombian, the author of this article hopes for the triumph of Republican John McCain. But his party isn’t so sure. … in weighing the urgent needs of the nation, a lawmaker of the Republican Party cannot claim to have voted against the plan simply out of resentment over the words of an insolent woman speaking on behalf of Democrats. A Republican should have enough common sense to disregard a few letters from uninformed, likely ignorant constituents about the uncertainties of the nation and the party. The nomination of Mrs. Sara Palin as a candidate for vice presidency by an aging McCain isn’t encouraging, either.” Read the rest of this entry »
Contrary to the now-popular wisdom about the end of American financial dominance, Jorge Castro of Argentina’s Clarin newspaper argues that the crisis merely demonstrates the inherent strength of the United States and its primacy within the global economy.
After agreeing with those that believe John McCain is running out of options this election cycle, Castro writes in part:
“The U.S. economy is, like its currency, the reserve and the most technologically advanced platform in the world. More than in normal times, this crises is revealing of the essential nature of this phenomenon. U.S. productivity is as important to the structure of global power as the law of gravity is to physics.”
“In contrast to ‘Mr. Hot’ McCain, Obama doesn’t proceed according to the slogan, ‘Forward, no matter what!’ … Obama simply seems more sober and rational. When panic abounds, this is what’s needed.”
While the financial crisis has unfolded and the U.S. election had pummeled ahead, North Korea has broken the seals on some of its nuclear enrichment facilities and six-party talks have broken down.
“Pyongyang accused Washington of not fulfilling its commitment to remove North Korea from the list of terrorist-supporting states. There’s a lot to be said about the quality of this list: either you support terrorism or not; and if this can be negotiated, what kind of list is that? But that’s a separate issue about the style of U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. explains its hesitance by pointing out North Korea’s refusal to adhere to the agreed-upon verification of its nuclear sites (which of course, Pyongyang has rejected). ”
“South Korean satellites recorded some strange smoke over a firing range near the village of Gilju in Hamgyong Province. It’s the same place where, on October 9, 2006 North Korea detonated something that apparently allowed it to call itself a nuclear power. … Some people who have seen the satellite images say it could be a smokescreen to conceal from satellites preparations for a new nuclear test. Of course, the same effect could be obtained by a bucketful of burning rags that someone wanted to get rid of. And while North Koreans burned rags and laughed, Washington thought to itself: Is this good news on the eve of the elections - the detonation of a North Korean nuclear bomb right after Condoleezza Rice’s assurances that everything is fine? … Now everything depends on whether the North Korean authorities want to make a gift to American Republicans on the eve of the voting (in the form of a resumption of the disarmament process), or choose to wait until the new administration enters the White House.”
Is it reasonable to hear Russian criticism of U.S. election smears and mudslinging, when their national election, held recently, featured the outright arrest of opposition candidates?
“The current election is a unique mixture of drama and soap opera, a mudslinging-struggle over ideals, well edited truths and even more carefully constructed lies. As they say in America, victors don’t win elections, the other aspirants lose them. And that’s one area in which these elections are no exception. It has to be won on TV screens by undermining the competitor with compromising information and by forcing him into fighting to preserve his reputation. The task isn’t to prove the truthfulness of your statements as it is to knock the wind out of your opponent.”
This is a war in which months of high ratings can be wiped out in an instant. Because elections aren’t won in August, September or October, but on the first Tuesday in November of every leap year.
Here’s a recent article from the Russian newspaper Argumenty i Facty that examines the question of what would happen of Santa Claus was elected U.S. president. And why would a Russian newspaper examine such a thing? According to the article:
“The United States has a new presidential candidate: His name is Santa Claus. More precisely, he is a man who, on the advice of family and friends due to his likeness to the mythical character, took the name ‘Santa.’ The gray-bearded resident of West Virginia previously known as Thomas O’Connor, recently registered himself as a candidate for the position of head of state.”
“Of course, the election of Santa Claus would be plagiarism. We [Russians] have long had the idea of building a residence for Grandpa Frost, making him an active political entity in the Great Ustyug, in Moscow. We have even arranged an entire welcoming committee for his arrival, as I recall writing at some point … This is a Russian idea. And of course, Grandpa Frost would be much more natural in the role of Russian president.”
On Monday morning, when the future of the American Dream was teetering under the Capitol dome, George W. Bush was in the East Room of the White House presenting the National Medal of Science and Technology and Innovation to men and women “whose discoveries have changed America and the world.”
Their names ranged from Willson to Lefkowitz to El-Sayed to O’Malley, a mosaic of the ethnic and cultural diversity that reflects the strength of a country where everyone, if you go back far enough, comes from an immigrant family.
One of them was my cousin, Leonard Kleinrock. His father and mine came here after World War I, with nothing but hope and struggled through a Depression to give their children a better life than they had had.
The citation read: “The 2007 National Medal of Science to Leonard Kleinrock for his fundamental contributions to the mathematical theory of modern data networks, and for the functional specification of packet switching, which is the foundation of Internet technology. His mentoring of generations of students has led to the commercialization of technologies that have transformed the world.”
I can tell you all this here only because of the achievements that led to his being called “the father of the Internet” and at a moment in history when we all need to be reminded that America is a place where, with determination and hard work, everything is possible.
There seems to be a global theme emerging in regard to President Bush and the financial crisis. Hot on the heels of yesterday’s Le Figaro article, ‘The Financial Crisis and the Curse of George W. Bush,’ Sérgio Malbergier of Brazil’s Folha also writes of the apparent bad luck of our beleaguered leader.
“George W. Bush, 62, is going to go down history. Fate has gotten him twice, and it has gotten him good. The first time, the aircraft-bombing of September 11, 2001 caught the President after less than nine months in the most important office of the world, when he had little international experience. He sought refuge in the wisdom of the Vice President and the Pentagon hawks - and the world has never the same. Bush’s second Big Bang is the collapse of the American financial system, which too, will never be the same.”
“The way John McCain and Barack Obama behave in the face of this economic crisis may well define who will succeed Bush, in what remains the most important position in the world. … McCain seems lost as does the Republican right, which turned a blind eye to the financial time-bomb on Wall Street.”
“President Lula is one of the biggest jokers with regard to the American situation. He has already offered proposals that are humorous and serious, which must confuse the Brazilian desk at the American Department of State. He should treat the crisis with greater seriousness and prepare the country accordingly. If he doesn’t, it’ll be like those Brazilians who think they know it all and brutally attack the tortures committed by American troops against foreign prisoners at Guantánamo, but say nothing about Brazilian citizens being tortured by Brazilian police in police stations right next to their homes.”
A 390-page report by the Inspector General is only a small step for mankind in bringing Karl Rove to justice for what he did to the Justice Department in the firing of the nine US attorneys, but it’s a start.
The internal investigation finds political pressure drove the 2006 dismissals but that refusal of major players at the White House and the department to cooperate in the year-long inquiry has left significant “gaps” in understanding what happened.
Investigators’ doubts have led Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint Acting United States Attorney in Connecticut Nora Dannehy, who led the conviction of a former governor for corruption, to continue the probe and decide if anyone should be prosecuted.
The “anyone” list starts with Bush’s White House toadies, Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, and goes on to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales…
Philippe Gelie of France’s Le Figaro ponders the unfortunate record of George W. Bush, and the way that today, at the end of his second term, he has been singularly abandoned by his own supporters, most of whom are up for election in November:
“A kind of curse must be following George W. Bush. The president, who began his first term under the shock of the September 11, 2001 attacks and inaugurated his second term with debacle of Hurricane Katrina, is now completing his time in the White House under the threat of a ‘Financial 9/11.’
“His reaction to the first crisis resulted in a ’sacred unity’ around him, which lasted until the first reversal of fortune in Iraq. The second [Hurricane Katrina] exposed the incompetence of an administration silenced by loyalty. The third should have corrected those bad memories: with the appointment in 2006 of Henry Paulson, former chief of Goldman Sachs, Bush put at the head of the American Treasury an expert on financial markets, who quickly assessed the situation and proposed a drastic remedy.”
Abandoned by the Republican minority in the House of Representatives, Bush has found himself in the unusual role of having to depend on the Democratic majority in Congress. ‘Don’t let this fail,’ he said to his conservative friends. In the hallway, Paulson even put his knee to the floor in front of Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House: ‘Please don’t blow up this deal,’ he asked. ‘It’s not me blowing this up. It’s the Republicans,’ she said. ‘I know, I know,’ Paulson sighed. This unusual image symbolizes the little strength that remains for a president who has fallen to 26 percent in the opinion polls, confronting a Congress which faces election: the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will be replaced on November 4.”
Has America, ‘abandoned all of its prior principles to a pragmatic state centralism based on tax increases’?
According to Alexandre Adler of French Newspaper Le Figaro, not only has the Reagan model been effectively abandoned and the embrace of state-capitalism begun, the military phase of the war against terrorism is over - with one notable exception:
“America is concluding the military phase of the war against terrorism, and is choosing a voluntarist economic model that could lead to a formidable strategic revolution: fewer ‘police operations,’ a radical redefinition of priorities brought on by a new financial austerity, but contradictorily, within Pakistani confines, perhaps the outline of a real war against a genuine army in Pakistan, in an alliance with India and Israel, and who knows what the result would be of a new Iran which is closer to Washington.”
Our planetary coverage of the U.S. financial crisis continues with this somewhat jarring article from China. What could be more unnerving than having your largest creditor begin pondering your financial demise? That might be the question Americans ask themselves while perusing this op-ed article from China’s state-controlled China Daily.
Ding Yifan, a Chinese government researcher, ponders whether the world is witnessing the end of U.S. global financial ‘hegemony,’ and complains that the Bush Administration is letting banks such a Lehman Brothers fail - which had large amounts of foreign investors - while saving banks with mostly U.S. investors. He closes ominously with the question, ‘what will we do with our rising foreign reserves?’
As we covered last week at WORLDMEETS.US in an article headlined, ‘Spain’s Conservatives Back McCain’s ‘Snub’ of President Zapatero‘, the Republican candidate’s recent comments about Spain’s Socialist leader have sparked a tremendous controversy in that country.
It all began with an interview John McCain gave last week to a Spanish-language radio station in Miami, in which McCain appeared to have trouble identifying Zapatero - or even what continent his country is in. He then seemed to imply that Spain may not be a U.S. ally.
This article, from Spain’s El Mundo newspaper, highlights how both the ruling Socialist party and the opposition conservatives have reacted to Obama’s jab at McCain over the episode in the debate last night.
“I was surprised by Mr. Obama’s question in relation to Zapatero visiting the White House. Mr. Obama already scandalized the President of our Government when during his European tour, didn’t even visit him in our country.”
“Expresses the Government’s ‘absolute’ respect for both candidates, but considers that Obama’s bid is “better for the world, for Europe, and for Spain” and that “one could argue that McCain ‘benefited’ because the topic of the debate was foreign policy, but that Obama ‘responded constructively’ to the issues raised.’
The article is packaged with both the McCain interview and last night’s exchange over the issue of Spain.
