“Can you really do this? Can you really elect Barack Obama President?”
Senator Kerry mentioned that in his speech at the rally this past Saturday in Nashua, NH that he has never seen such worldwide interest in a U.S. Presidential campaign. Kerry said that he has often been questioned by world leaders about the election and if the American voters are really going to make not only history, but historic change this November.
You know what they say to me sometimes? They look at me and they say, "Can you really do this? Can you elect Barack Obama, can you elect this guy?" Yes we can. And that's exactly what I tell them. And when we do my friends, we will have changed history in a bigger way than I think at any time in America and in any Presidential race. We will have given life to our values. We will have given a reality to the American story that reaches all acrosss the planet. And once again an American President's picture will hang in huts in Central and South America, and in Africa and in Asia and in places where they look up to the values that we stand for. That's what's at stake here.
Nicholas Kristof, in his column in the New York Times this morning, agrees with that sentiment. Kristof notes that electing Obama president would signal to the world the elasticity and promise of American democracy. The world would wake up on November 5th with a different view of the United States.
We’re beginning to get a sense of how Barack Obama’s political success could change global perceptions of the United States, redefining the American “brand” to be less about Guantánamo and more about equality. This change in perceptions would help rebuild American political capital in the way that the Marshall Plan did in the 1950s or that John Kennedy’s presidency did in the early 1960s.
Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes, which conducted the BBC poll, said that at a recent international conference he attended in Malaysia, many Muslims voiced astonishment at Mr. Obama’s rise because it was so much at odds with their assumptions about the United States. Remember that the one thing countless millions of people around the world “know” about the United States is that it is controlled by a cabal of white bankers and Jews who use police with fire hoses to repress blacks. To them, Mr. Obama’s rise triggers severe cognitive dissonance.
“It’s an anomaly, so contrary to their expectation that it makes them receptive to a new paradigm for the U.S.,” Mr. Kull said.
General Colin Powell said in his endorsement Sunday on Meet the Press that the election of Barack Obama would signal transformational change in America. Senator Kerry said the same thing in January when he endorsed Barack Obama for President. America has a chance not just to turn a new page at home, but a chance to show the rest of the world that we can renew our our values at the ballot box. This will have a profound impact all around the world. It is yet another thing to consider in this historic election year.
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Mr Kerry,
Obama wants to allow us 10k with no penalty and regular taxes out of our IRA funds to get out of debt, while Mc Cain proposes 50k without penalty and a ten percent tax to get out of debt.Both proposals are for early IRA withdrawals before the 59-1/2 limit. Whose side is Obama on? Clearly not mine.
I heard John Kerry say yesterday he’s in favor of this “Fairness” doctrine.
This is pure fascism.
Telling people what they can and cannot listen to or read?
Didn’t the Nazi’s do this?
God help America from the likes of Kerry.
Jon T
Mansfield, MA
just wanted to thank kerry and his former campaign people for putting obama on center stage in the 2004 campaign. barack’s speech 4 years ago sold me on him 4 years ago. It was like he was JFK incarnated, except I have to remind myself he was born before JFK was killed. After that speech I started to read his books and books about him. I just bought and finished Dreams from my Father, which was 13 years before he ran for president and long before he thought of running for president. He is pretty candid about how he saw the world and how his life impacted him and how he inherited his smarts from both parents as well as his wanderlust (which essentially make him want to go from career to career and gives him the drive to want to become president and have the opportunity to make real life changes in people’s lives.
Again, often fate steps in and maybe Bushes presidencies was needed to show the country it was all along on a wrong road. If things go the way it looks to be heading, the democratics will get that special time of heading the congress as well as the presidency. With all that power, I hope they can make this a better and fairer country. I am 62 white married educated female and have waivered from moderate democrat to a reagan democrat and now find myself staunchly liberal leaning democrat. Seems to be going the opposite of how older people think. However, I see how a rich country can go so wrong when all the money is concentrated in the upper 5% of the country. You can not have a strong economy with no one in your own country working and outsourcing all the jobs. With advent of the internet most jobs can be outsourced when in the past it was impossible. We need new industries to create jobs. We need new fuel sources. We have been going around in circles with oil and middle east. We need to be a participating country within the global network.
This country needs to elect Obama! We need a Deomocratic President and Congress and Senate to straighten out the horrible mess that the Republicans have created in the last eight years. If John Kerry had become Prseident in 2004, we would be in a lot better shape right now. I wish John Kerry would have run for President again and was very sad when he did not, but he has done so much to help Obama and does great work in the Senate for all Americans. God Bless him!
To Mr. Kerry and Mr. Powell and all those folks who think Mr. Obama will help our current economic woes in our country. Economics is cyclical and is not controlled by our president. Our government controlls (through taxation and government spending) whether or not we will expand through our free market system or contract through our free market system. Our government jobs programs is a prop for our unemployment rates. What you folks don’t understand is that when the free market is left alone (no government stimulus no government bailouts no government handouts) true capitalism can occur. Companies expand requiring new jobs and creating a prospering economy. Those who are unable to work should be taken care of. Those who want freebies can work for our overemployed government at 5.85 an hour. We must let the free market, capitalism and supply and demand work without government intervention. When folks know the free ride or the free bailout is over they will begin to work and do it with integrity. GOD BLESS AMERICA AND CAPITALISM!