I swear, I’ll never understand the self-centered mentality of some people. Haven’t we been living the “We’re the U.S.of A. and we don’t give a damn what the rest of the world thinks of us” attitude for the past 7 years? How’s that workin’ out for us, huh?
So if what the rest of the world thinks of our President is so meaningless, why should anyone give a damn who answers the phone over some world crisis at 3:00AM?
Are we all of a sudden supposed to not care what the countries who are harboring terrorists think of us while they work towards building nuclear weapons and training suicide bombers? REALLY?
Why do we even have a State Department or bother discussing International Relations if it’s so unimportant?
Trade? Pffffffft!
Allowing our pilots a safe place to land when we’re under attack? Sod off.
Sending troops in to wars we start to put their lives and limbs at risk for our sake? Get outta here!
And to say we don’t care about other countries leaders is to freaking LAUGH! We cared so much we started a war in order to oust one for crying out loud! Of COURSE we care! We care a LOT.
Sorry, my response wasn’t clear. I wasn’t referring to the to the OP. I was referring to the NPR story. It’s simply an Appeal To Authority fallacy. NPR found themselves some “experts” who had nice things to say about Obama. My point is not about Obama himself. Just the style of this argument.
For the record, I’ve never seen Eastenders. I’m a big fan of Extras.
It’s actually an odd switch for NPR who pride themselves on being as -midland- as any news outlets out there. However, this campaign season they have been treating Clinton with more positive soins than usual and Obama with slights of radio waves, I guess I could say. This story was one of the first where Obama was portrayed in a refreshing light in my opinion.
I very much doubt that there would be any long-lasting effect from Obama’s winning the nomination or the election. America-hatred comes not only from our policies, but also from hating the 800lb gorilla, just as England was hated when it was the world superpower. In addition, Obama’s bashing of NAFTA and belligerently unilateralist economic demands on other countries is inconsistent with his improving America’s image abroad.
No Shayna, it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. Like it or not, the U.S. is the fulcrum of the world, and as such, the opinions of most of the people in this world are not going to be swayed by what we actually do, but by how our portrayed by people in pursuit of their own agendas. Bill Clinton used force to protect Muslims from genocide in Kosovo, 2 years later Muslims were piloting planes into the WTC. Your pal George W. Bush has spent more money fighting AIDS in Africa than anyone, instead of being appreciated for what he does do he is criticized for not doing more. It’s a cliche`, but it’s true: Nations have neither friends nor enemies. They have interests. We aren’t going to get one more trade agreement, other nations are not going to hunt terrorists one iota harder or commit one soldier more to any military effort because we have a nice guy (or gal) for a president. They will do these things because it is in their best interest to do so, and for no other reason.
You raise some valid points dave. Like it or not the countries of the world are intertwined and what happens to one affects the rest - to some degree - but the US is a fulcrum I agree, and I feel like our past will haunt us well into the future. I refuse to believe inroads into the agendas of the world cannot be made. Global climate change is a very real phenomenon - and instead of being a prostitute for it we could spearhead - read join other nations - the development of earth friendly energies to reduce our sick addiction to oil. That would be a step int he right direction.
Stop reading my mind. At the risk of sounding flippant, it’s a free country. “They” are free to give their opinions and we are free to take it under due consideration (if we want to) and then do what we intended all along (ignore them). However, as long as no “foreign power” interferes with our elections, does not try to force some puppet dictator on us, etc etc etc, then what’s the harm? Let them talk all they want.
It’s idiotic not to care about world opinion. It is ALWAYS in 100% of cases, all the time, a good thing for the world to like us. There is never a situation where this is not a good thing. Now, it may not be the main reason to vote for someone, and there might be other factors that outweigh this, but it is always to our benefit to be liked by other nations.
I think it’s a factor in some respects since our president is a figurehead. While I agree that other countries mostly act just in their own interest, I do also think that you can get more flies with honey than vinegar.
Obviously, somebody from another country, unless they are an American Government student or something, doesn’t know enough about the system to have that much of a useful opinion in congressional elections and so forth. Well, neither do a lot of our citizens, but that’s another matter.
Oh, yeah, I’m pretty sure those Muslims from Kosovo weren’t the ones who flew planes into the WTC. :rolleyes:
No, you and everyone else in this thread are misconstruing what I said in my first post. If a candidate came to me and said “You should vote for me because the world likes me better than these other guys”, I would consider that a reason NOT to vote for them. Not because of what the world thinks, but because anyone who would tout that as a qualification for president is not someone I want leading my country. The president of the United States should have one thing and one thing only as his/her focus: What is best for the U.S. World opinion is meaningless.
No, as I’ve said, “world opinion” does not factor anywhere in evaluating the candidates. It is a meaningless piece of information.
I would have thought that having the foremost representative of your country be someone who’s liked is a pretty good thing for the U.S…
I certainly agree that there are many other qualities that should come above just being liked by the world. But meaningless? You do generally have to interact with the world, even if it is on unique terms. Good world opinion = good for America.
