BERLIN - A world weary of eight years of George W. Bush was riveted Tuesday by the drama unfolding in the United States. Many were inspired by Barack Obama's focus on hope, or simply relieved that - whoever wins - the current administration is coming to an end.
From Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to the small town of Obama, Japan, the world gears up to celebrate a fresh start for America.
Four years ago I predicted that John Kerry would win the presidential election. My gut told me so based on Kerry's more favorable showing among women, not the so-called security Moms or "W is for Women" camp, but rather those women who viewed security in a larger framework than just the Bush Doctrine. I also thought Kerry's stronger following from the under 35 voter would give him the edge over Bush.
The pivotal moment for me in the U.S. presidential campaign came during the Republican convention last August, when Rudolph Giuliani couldn't get the words "community organizer" out of his mouth without laughing.
After eight years of Republican rule – during which the rich happily trampled on the poor in their rush to the Wall Street trough – the notion that someone would organize the poor to assert their rights struck both Giuliani and his Republican audience as simply funny.
I have been doing a lot of soul searching as this momentous election has drawn closer. Of all the hopes and fears that have passed through my mind, one of the most powerful has been the sense that that the clock is winding down for my generation — the “‘60s generation.”
By the time you reach late middle age, facing your own mortality is nothing new. But what has been gnawing at me in recent months is how loudly the clock is now ticking for my generation in a political sense.
Genie Gratto of Oakland, Calif., says early voters have been
confused by arrows printed on ballots. Gary Watts reports three-hour
lineups at his polling place in Renton, Wash., which provided only two
dozen machines for people to vote on. Carrie Tobey has a co-worker in
Cape Cod who she said was allowed to vote early instead of by absentee
ballot, even though the state of Massachusetts does not allow the
practice.
SELMA, Ala. - On the Sunday before election day in America, politics and religion do mix. And few places are more fervently engaged than this town, steeped in civil rights lore.
"It's your season to be blessed," sings the choir of the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church. "God made you a promise, you stood the test."
At a Halloween-day rally for John McCain in Columbus, Ohio, ANP
asked McCain supporters a simple question: If Barack Obama is elected
president, what will it say about America? One woman, who claims that
Obama wants to change the flag and the national anthem, demonstrates
the lasting power of a debunked anti-Obama chain e-mail. Produced in collaboration with Patricia Foulkrod, director of The Ground Truth.
MEMORANDUM:
TO: PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
FROM: THE WORLD
We
know you are not quite there yet. Whatever. The rest of the planet now
has concluded you will be. Your honeymoon suite awaits with a euphoria
that spans the globe.
A word of warning, however, before you snuggle in for that first group hug. There are bedbugs. And they bite.
A year of rising expectations is about to fall on your shoulders, with a thundering weight many now predict will buckle you.
"Forgotten but not gone" was the way in which the supremo of Boston politics, Billy Bulger, liked to dismiss the human irritants he had crushed beneath his trim boot. The same could now be said for the hapless 43rd President of the United States as the daylight draws mercifully in on his reign of misfortune and calamity. How is he bearing up, one wonders, as the candidate from his own party treats him as the carrier of some sort of infectious political disease?
Can it happen? Are the Bush years going to end with the election of a cerebral, liberal black man born to a Muslim goat-herd from Kenya and an atheist farm-girl from Kansas? Will we witness it in less than 48 hours? Whisper it: yes we can. At the midnight hour tomorrow night – unless opinion polls are wrong; more wrong than they have ever been – the era of President Barack Obama will begin.
