Barack Obama is not a revolutionary
04 November 2008 à 22h04
| Aucun commentaire
Three questions to Axel Krause, journalist, former correspondent for Business Week and the International Herald Tribune in Paris.
Let’s talk about the Americans first. They support the candidate who is going to help them. We are not only going through a financial crisis but a real depression ! It is a bit like in the 1930s, when 25% of people were unemployed. Today, 2.4 million Americans have had their houses seized because they could not pay off their debts and 47 million do not have any health insurance.
But seen from Europe, « Obamania » can be explained by different reasons. Europeans firmly reject Bush’s foreign policy. He is seen as the president who is responsible for the war in Iraq and the crisis in the Middle East. So people do expect Obama to have a very different approach on foreign affairs. They want him to be more open on the international scene. And Obama himself lived abroad when he was a child, he understood what poverty means he saw the slums of Jakarta.
There is no magic solution during a financial crisis. Think about Franklin Roosevelt, he did not solve the crisis just by implementing his New Deal. What really took the United States out of the recession was when it started its economy of war when WW2 broke out.
The essential question today is how to reflate the economy and to deal with problems American people are facing every day. Each candidate has a different approach regarding this. Barack Obama is not a revolutionary and he does not want to change capitalism but rather reform, modernize and control it. He could even be seen as almost protectionist when he recently said that American jobs should stay in America. But he is definitely more human than McCain in the way he considers society.
Well, his nomination came as a consensus in the party, because there was no real other charismatic candidate. He was supported because he was seen as a war hero and Republicans thought that he could attract votes from the center as he was rather flexible on some topics, like environmental concerns and the use of torture.
Everybody thought he was going to choose the right running mate, but something happened : he chose Sarah Palin. At first it was seen as a smart choice as she is a woman, she is a governor and she speaks her mind. The party changed her image, the hockey mum became aggressive towards Obama and attacked him on personal grounds. In fact, Sarah Palin turned out to be McCain’s biggest liability. The McCain we knew at the beginning of the campaign disappeared. He too became more aggressive and offensive.
Another drawback for McCain in people’s mind is that he voted 90% of the propositions of law made by the Bush administration, even though he also contested his politics.
Claire-Hélène Bouzgarrou and Paul Gypteau.
Why are the Europeans so interested in the US elections?
Let’s talk about the Americans first. They support the candidate who is going to help them. We are not only going through a financial crisis but a real depression ! It is a bit like in the 1930s, when 25% of people were unemployed. Today, 2.4 million Americans have had their houses seized because they could not pay off their debts and 47 million do not have any health insurance.
But seen from Europe, « Obamania » can be explained by different reasons. Europeans firmly reject Bush’s foreign policy. He is seen as the president who is responsible for the war in Iraq and the crisis in the Middle East. So people do expect Obama to have a very different approach on foreign affairs. They want him to be more open on the international scene. And Obama himself lived abroad when he was a child, he understood what poverty means he saw the slums of Jakarta.
How could the next president solve the financial crisis?
There is no magic solution during a financial crisis. Think about Franklin Roosevelt, he did not solve the crisis just by implementing his New Deal. What really took the United States out of the recession was when it started its economy of war when WW2 broke out.
The essential question today is how to reflate the economy and to deal with problems American people are facing every day. Each candidate has a different approach regarding this. Barack Obama is not a revolutionary and he does not want to change capitalism but rather reform, modernize and control it. He could even be seen as almost protectionist when he recently said that American jobs should stay in America. But he is definitely more human than McCain in the way he considers society.
Was McCain the best option for the Republicans?
Well, his nomination came as a consensus in the party, because there was no real other charismatic candidate. He was supported because he was seen as a war hero and Republicans thought that he could attract votes from the center as he was rather flexible on some topics, like environmental concerns and the use of torture.
Everybody thought he was going to choose the right running mate, but something happened : he chose Sarah Palin. At first it was seen as a smart choice as she is a woman, she is a governor and she speaks her mind. The party changed her image, the hockey mum became aggressive towards Obama and attacked him on personal grounds. In fact, Sarah Palin turned out to be McCain’s biggest liability. The McCain we knew at the beginning of the campaign disappeared. He too became more aggressive and offensive.
Another drawback for McCain in people’s mind is that he voted 90% of the propositions of law made by the Bush administration, even though he also contested his politics.
Claire-Hélène Bouzgarrou and Paul Gypteau.
