Who should be U.S. President? An European View

It is true that the US president has somewhat of a worldwide reach, but to be fair this the US economical influence is of more importance than politics - put aside the coutnries to which US decide to attack, be the reasons good or not.

Bush did certainly not give a good impression outside the US, but in terms of daily life of a european, the impact has been quite low. Ok, the gas price did raise, but I'm not sure it's a result of Bush's action or a general trend.

I have some interest in this election because I like politics for itself, not becasue it will influence much of my life.

From a US point of view, a Democrat certainly looks more on what we call left-side in Europe, and a Republican more on the right-side.

However if you try to compare the values, programs, and ideas of US democrats, you will find they correspond to right ideals in Europe. This is because US are basically much more economy, thus right, oriented than Europe.

Would a Democrat use billions of federal funds to help a private company which is about to fail ? When something like the Enron scandal occurs in Europe, the governments put money in to try saving jobs, and so on. Look at what happened with Crédit Lyonnais or Swissair for example...

From Europe, this does not look like a big spread, be it McCain or Obama. We have here candidates that want to limit the weekly working time, impose minimal salaries, prevent companies to fire them employees, and even some extreme who still propose to make all companies state-owned !

On the other side, candidates propose to give priority to national people when hiring someone, send all foreigners back to their country, and so on. This is a wide political spectrum.

A fellow hubber published his own US view, and it's seem so typical to me that I can't resist the temptation to compare. Not criticise, but compare...

At first, yes US is mostly white... as Europe is ! So there are a lot of non-US but white people out there. Secondly, European life is not so different from US life, and we also try to push our products everywhere else, we're just not as efficient.

Finally, and even if I don't see Obama as a man of hope or with a vision, many wars on the globe (particularly in Africa) have very regional, cultural, or religious reasons. The choice of the next US president will have absolutely no impact on them.

The next US president will probably have impact on what goes on in Afghanistan and Iraq, but these are only two wars amongst many, and hopefully US are not involved in all wars worldwide !

It's good to see that an afro-american, a woman, a mormon, someone with Italian roots and an pure US product and Vietnam veteran are all engaged in this campain...

But I personally beleieve that selecting someone in the primaries and what people will do when they will be voting, alone in front of the ballot, are really different things. Old reflexes come back quickly...

So except if a late-minute outisder joins the race, I think the more "average" and "US like" candiadte will get it, especially in these times where US is looking for its identity on the international scene.

But may be I'm completely wrong... I'm just a European.

I wrote this hub on the 25th of January 2008, and will update it as long as the campaign goes on.

30th of January:Giuliani lost Florida, so I think he will resign in favor of McCain. Because of the reasons I explained above, I think McCain is now the more standard (white male with high "war" profile) candidate, so the more likely to get it.

1st of February: Giuliani and Edwards are gone. I guess now that Romney's religion will penalize him too much, so McCain is the more likely Republican candidate. I'm not sure Clinton or Obama can beat him, because of the last-minute reflex people could have... Al Gore to declare something soon ?

8th of February: Romney resigned, leaving open field to McCain on the Republican side... my initial hypothesis seems to get confirmed....

5th of March: McCain is confirmed as Republican candidate. The Democrats continue to fight, and rumors about a Cliton - Obama or Obama - Clinton ticket starts to spread...

12th of May: I did not update this hub for months now, as nothing changed ! The Democrats continue to fight (Obama seems to get closer, but never definitively), and McCain prepares his campain...

7th of June: It's not official: Hillary Clinton gave up. So we'll have an Obama - McCain election. Many seem to think that Obama has better solutions, but I continue to think that McCain has the best chances.

29th of August: The candidates to vice-presidence are known: Joe Biden by the Democrats... and Sarah Palin by the Republicans. Wow. A woman ? By the Republicans ? Yes. That's surprising... Will see, I don't want to bet on the impact of these choices.