And the horses are on the track …
Folha, Brazil
Obama,
Clinton and McCain:
Good News
from Americans …
"The three seem capable of positively
exercising America's undeniable global leadership, exactly contrary to George
W. Bush - president for a period of eight years during which the United States
went backwards."
By Kennedy
Alencar
Translated By Brandi Miller
February 8, 2008
Brazil
- Folha - Original Article (Portuguese)
With Republican candidate for
President Mitt Romney's withdrawal from the race on Thursday (Feb. 7), the
process of choosing candidates for the most powerful chair in the world
narrowed for the better. The election takes place in November.
In the Republican Party,
Senator John McCain has established himself as the presumptive candidate. On
the Democratic side, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are tied up in a
battle that seems far from over.
For some analysts, Hillary
and Obama are at the center of a somewhat suicidal duel - one undermining the
other while McCain runs along alone. That’s an exaggeration. Anyone who saw the
Democratic debates saw a high level contest. Were there any blows below the belt?
There were. But they haven't been the rule in the clash between Hillary and
Obama – senators from the States of New York and Illinois.
In Brazil, part of the media
treats Obama like the Collor phenomenon [Brazil's President from 1990-92 
], a young man
without the preparation and who could disappoint when it comes time to take
difficult decisions. Fiddle faddle. If Hillary sounds more prepared in areas
like the economy, Obama oozes more than charisma and is far from being a mere adventurer.
“Obamania” has been good for
the United States. Young people who were apathetic before have begun to believe
in politics. Hillary had to descend from her pedestal as favored candidate - and
she learned in this process. The message of change promoted by Obama has been
fully integrated into her campaign. She has mobilized her electorate. She has aired
out her electoral platform. An eventual government of the Senator will probably
not have the mark of an administration of wizened Washington insiders.
WORLDMEETS.US
Despite being in favor of the
Iraq War, McCain has progressive ideas about the treatment of illegal
immigrants and the role of the Hispanic population in the country. He supports,
for example, the settlement of the 12 million illegal immigrants there and reform
of the immigration laws.
The challenge for McCain will
be to resist appeals for him to tilt further to the right in order to win support
from traditional Republican voters. In such circumstances, this Vietnam War
veteran would be shooting himself in the foot. It doesn’t seem plausible that
the conservative electorate would board a Democrat's canoe because the
Republican candidate from Arizona is too centrist. Does anyone think these
voters would go for Hillary or Obama?
There is good
news from the American primaries. Hillary, Obama, and McCain are some of the best
people for charting America's undeniable global leadership. The three seem
capable of positively exercising this leadership, exactly contrary to George W.
Bush - president for a period of eight years during which the United States
went backwards. Under Bush, there were restrictions of civil rights and the use
of torture as an officially sanctioned method of investigation. And he implemented
an ineffective method of combating terrorism based on lies which resulted in
the tarnishing of the image of the United States around the world. WORLDMEETS.US
PURE HUNCH
A Hillary-Obama
ticket, aside from probably being unbeatable, would create domestic and international
conditions that would pave the way for a long-term 16-year hold on power of the
Democratic Party. That would be good for the world, for the U.S. and for
Brazil.
In terms of Brazilian
interests, the story that Democrats would make more hostile presidents because
they're more protectionist isn't the case. Despite good relations between Lula
and Bush, the American president has made no economically-relevant concessions to
his Brazilian colleague. The Free Trade Area of the Americas never made it off
paper and talks to make global commerce more free (the Doha Round) are still
jammed. WORLDMEETS.US
On the other hand, Bill
Clinton gave a helping hand to [President] Fernando Henrique Cardoso during the
foreign exchange crisis of 1999. Clinton made possible more than $40 billion in
aid from the IMF to keep Brazil from falling apart in January of that year.
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Kennedy
Alencar, 40, is a columnist for Folha
Online and a special reporter for Folha in Brasília. He writes for
Pensata
on Fridays and for the column Brasília
Online, where he goes behind the scenes of federal politics, on Sundays.
E-mail: kalencar@folhasp.com.br
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[WORLDMEETS.US Posted February 13, 4:02am]
