The fact that fireworks are going off this evening seems fitting - as if to celebrate that the US electorate has finally had the good sense to vote in a President with some intelligence and who - unlike "Dubya" - isn't promoting a foreign policy based on the world view of a 10-year old child.
Following the very dubious election result in 2000 and his record of wilful ignorance and incompetence over the subsequent four years, it was astonishing to me (and, I think, many in the UK) that Dubya was clearly voted into power for a second term. Fighting terrorists who were happy to take their own lives using bombs and missiles? Yes, that was always going to work. And by invading a country with which they had no clear connection? Good thinking. The most depressing part of the saga was the enthusiasm with which Tony Blair followed the USA into the disaster of the Iraq War - making him, in his foreign policy, the biggest let-down in UK politics of my lifetime. The number of innocent lives lost in this misconceived exploit - and the complicity of the British government - was appalling.
In the 2008 election I'd like to think that US voters finally cottoned on to the fact that Bush and his party were doing their country no good, either at home or abroad. However, it could be just that they weren't confident enough about the health of McCain, a man in his 70s who had already had cancer. If he'd won the election but couldn't continue, the world would have had President Sarah Palin. Now that was a really scary idea...
Following the very dubious election result in 2000 and his record of wilful ignorance and incompetence over the subsequent four years, it was astonishing to me (and, I think, many in the UK) that Dubya was clearly voted into power for a second term. Fighting terrorists who were happy to take their own lives using bombs and missiles? Yes, that was always going to work. And by invading a country with which they had no clear connection? Good thinking. The most depressing part of the saga was the enthusiasm with which Tony Blair followed the USA into the disaster of the Iraq War - making him, in his foreign policy, the biggest let-down in UK politics of my lifetime. The number of innocent lives lost in this misconceived exploit - and the complicity of the British government - was appalling.
In the 2008 election I'd like to think that US voters finally cottoned on to the fact that Bush and his party were doing their country no good, either at home or abroad. However, it could be just that they weren't confident enough about the health of McCain, a man in his 70s who had already had cancer. If he'd won the election but couldn't continue, the world would have had President Sarah Palin. Now that was a really scary idea...
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