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.
For France’s Le Figaro newspaper, Dominique Moisi writes in part:
“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?”
By Dominique Moïsi*
Translated By Sandrine Ageorges
November 3, 2008
France – Le Figaro – Original Article (France)
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.
Nonetheless, never will a new presidency have opened under such harsh financial and economic conditions. The candidate of hope inherits an America of fear. In most likely preparing to vote for Obama, America isn’t only choosing the candidate it deems most competent and capable of confronting the consequences of the “September 11 of finance” which was the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and its catastrophic aftermath. It isn’t just a negative referendum on the unpredictable character of John McCain – and even more so the limitations of his Vice Presidential choice of Sarah Palin. For candidate McCain, his reassuring statements on the strength of the American economy on the day of Wall Street’s collapse may have been the equivalent of George W. Bush’s incapacity to grasp the impact of Hurricane Katrina in time.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated and English-language foreign press coverage of the U.S. election and its aftermath.
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