Here is a little Moderate Voice roundup of what Worldmeets.US has posted about the U.S. presidential race since the third presidential debate on foreign policy. The articles are from Italy, China, Pakistan and Brazil.
Starting off with Europe, we have posted two reactions from Italy’s La Stampa.
In an article headlined No One Can Say that American’s Don’t Have a Choice, one of Italy’s leading columnists, Gianni Riotta writes that the U.S. presidential debates were never going to be the deciding factor in the race, as the candidates are roughly exactly where they were when they began. But he also opines that whatever their impact, they show that American democracy works, and that U.S. voters will have more than enough information to make their choice “in freedom.”:
“American democracy is invigorated by debates. The voters will have a clear choice in November between two men with different personalities. … No repeating the old cliché, ‘Voting is pointless since nothing changes.’ As in the 2013 elections in Germany and Italy, this time the results really matter. … Americans will make their choice in freedom. It is a ritual some snobs scorn as ‘ideology,’ but whose real name is ‘democracy.'”
Then La Stampa columnist Marco Bardazzi, in a column headlined Europe Goes Missing in Obama-Romney Foreign Policy Debate, highlights a trend in European reaction, pointing out that Europe was hardly mentioned in the debate, and that for good or ill, the economic center of gravity is shifting east, with Europe increasingly a secondary concern for the United States:
“It is striking how American is increasingly gazing across the Pacific rather than the Atlantic. Of course, Europe has been discussed in previous debates (almost always negatively) when dealing with economic issues. But when it comes to discussing major global issues, in Washington’s eyes, everything European is, for the moment, secondary.”
Then moving on to Asia, we posted reactions from China and Pakistan.
In an editorial from Pakistan’s Dawn headlined Word to Wise for Pakistanis: ‘Moderate Mitt’ May Be Fleeting, the newspaper suggests that the reasonable-sounding candidate sitting on stage with President Obama on Monday may have been play acting:
“Mr. Romney came across as measured and reasonable. In fact, there was little to separate the policies of Obama from those of Romney. … If Romney does win the election two weeks from now, he is expected to choose his foreign and national security teams from among the ranks of neocons and hardliners. So ‘moderate Mitt’ may just be a temporary phenomenon, designed to tick the commander-in-chief box for an electorate disinterested in the outside world.”
Then from China’s state-run Xinhua, in an article headlined Obama and Romney Best Not ‘Go Too Far’ Bashing China, columnist Liu Jie warns that both President Obama and Mitt Romney are putting the well being of their nation at risk by bashing China at every turn. Jie writes that the candidates are proving themselves to be poor partners of the People’s Republic of China, and must take care not to ‘go too far’ with their careless accusations and threats.
“During the campaign, regardless of the facts of the matter, both have relentlessly blamed China to cover up for their own incapacity to get America’s domestic economy back on track. It is a tactic that only serves to expose the world’s superpower as bereft of ways to address its real problems. … When it comes to bashing China, the candidates should be mindful not to go too far.”
And finally from Brazil’s Folha, in a column headlined China and Mitt Romney: The Tale of the Mandarin and the Yankee Plutocrat, columnist Monica Baumgarten De Bolle recalls a cautionary tale written by Eca de Queiroz, a revered 19th century Brazilian novelist, to illustrate how sorry Mitt Romney will be if he follows through with his threat to declare China a currency manipulator during his first day in office:
“The story involves the devil, an ambitious man and a powerful mandarin – a senior government official in ancient China. … One day in a secondhand book shop, Teodoro, a low-ranking civil servant and a greedy individual prone to social climbing, discovers a book containing a certain fable. The book says that the mere ringing of a bell, at a specific hour, will kill the mandarin and that he, the assassin, will inherit his millions. … Romney wants to ring the bell: he wants to formally declare China a currency manipulator, triggering a cascade of events that could be extremely detrimental to the global economic recovery.”
READ MORE GLOBAL VIEWS OF THE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
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