© 2008 Eric Margolis

Archives > April 21, 2008

THE WORLD LIKES OBAMA


PARIS – The more things change, as the French are fond of saying, the more they remain the same.
But things have really changed here in France, at least since the long ago days of my youth in the later 1950’s and early 1960’s, and they are no longer the same.

In those bygone days, France was still deep in shock from its disaster in World War II. The nation was closed in on itself, completely self-absorbed, racked by postwar guilt and rent by mutual recriminations.

The one fixed point for French was their national individuality and unique, sharply etched character. They found a measure of solace in being resolutely French and abjuring the outside world.

Most French refused to speak English, a process they found unworthy, undignified, and even painful. The British were hated for stabbing France in the back early in the war by pulling their troops out at Dunquerque and sinking part of the French Fleet. French deeply resented being ordered about by the United States and treated like a third rate nation.

France was glum, grumpy and depressed. On top of the malaise, the communists were threatening to take over the government. In the early 1960’s, France even began quietly refurbishing and upgunning the Maginot Line forts in fear of the mighty, 100-division Soviet Red Army.

That was yesterday. Today, the new globalized generation of young and even middle aged French enjoys speaking English and often does so at the slightest excuse. France is becoming bi-lingual. Even France’s entry into the Eurosong competition is, mon dieu!, in English. It gets increasingly hard to speak French here in Paris.

Paris’ notorious taxi drivers, who once sought to install metal plates in their rear seats to electrocute unruly or, more likely, low-tipping passengers, have become shockingly polite. Retailers and waiters actually seem pleased to see you. Americans are again welcome. A young man offered me his seat on the Metro. French seem to have discovered a new happy pill.

Wine and bread consumption, once staples of French life, are way down. Oppressed French smokers have been forced out of cafes into the cruel street. Young French seem to live on predigested junk food. The wonderful old smoky, black and white France of my youth, with her violent riots, Edith Piaf and Yves Montand, army plots, silly Left Bank intellectuals, and weird little cars like Panhard and Simca cars, has vanished.

French have been paying a lot of attention to their new president, Nicholas Sarkozy, and his smashing second wife, Carla Bruni, who is widely regarded as a huge asset for `Sarko.’ But right now, French and other Europeans are absolutely fascinated by the US presidential race. During two weeks of TV and radio broadcasting in Paris, the number one question I was asked is who will win the US primaries and November vote.

The president of the United States has at least as much if not more influence over many nations than their own governments. So, I’ve always favored a one-tenth vote for all non-Americans.

If this were the case, then Barak Obama would win in a landslide. Like North Americans, most Europeans really don’t know much about the experience-light senator, but what they see, they like `beaucoup.’ You can feel a passion here for Obama that is quite remarkable, and an earnest hope that America may soon return to being its old, pre-Bush, pre-9/11 self.

Obama is wildly popular because he is, of course, the non-Bush. But so is Hillary Clinton, yet she inspires surprisingly little support even though husband Bill, for reasons that elude me, was widely admired abroad. Hillary is regarded simply as an avatar of the Clinton political machine which, however formidable, is seen as empty of substance, and dedicated only to the relentless pursuit of power and money.

The three Americans public figures most respected internationally are Barak Obama, Jimmy Carter, and Al Gore. They are widely seen as representing many of America’s best qualities. They are also a potent antidote to the Southern yahoos, holy rollers and totalitarian neoconservative ideologues who hijacked the Republican Party – my life-long party – and blackened America’s name around the globe.

Obama is seen abroad as the candidate who can end the shameful Bush era and return America to a moderate, productive role in world affairs. He is expected to end the Iraq War and Bush’s militarized foreign policy, and re-integrate the United States into the company of law-respecting, environmentally conscious nations, of whom the European Union is now the leader.

Obama comes across to Europeans as dignified, decent, eloquent, and truthful, qualities notably lacking in either Bush and Dick Cheney who too often seem to symbolize America’s cruder instincts and its wallowing in synthetic patriotism. Just a few days ago, for example, Republicans accused Obama of not being patriotic because he does not wear an American flag on his lapel.

Much of the world would hail and admire America for electing a man of color, but even more so, one who appears to capture so much of what is great and admirable about the United States.

There are fears here the bitter Hillary-Obama contest may ruin both candidates, leading to four more years of Bush under John McCain. But it may also benefit Obama. He needs to toughen up before facing the ferocious Republican attack machine that sunk war veteran John Kerry’s campaign under a torrent of `Swiftboat’ lies about his military service in Vietnam. John McCain is a gentleman, but not so Republican strategist Carl Rove’s waiting character assassins.

Obama could sharply alter America’s highly negative image created by Bush & Co. as a determined enemy of the Muslim world. Not because his father was Muslim, but because of his image of fairness and sensible foreign policy proposals calling for open dialogue with the Muslim World, including Iran, instead of confrontation. If Americans want to repair relations with the Muslim world, electing Obama is a good way to start.

It’s distressing listening to the rich John McCain and equally rich Clintons scourge Obama an `elitist’ because he is intelligent, articulate, and poised. Next, they will brand him as , `too French.’

Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2008

Posted by Eric Margolis on April 21, 2008 10:04 AM
Comments:

Look at the people actually listening - imagine that! - behind Obama at any one of his speaking engagements: they are engaged, happy to be there and totally in tune with their candidate. Compare them to the listless folks with their wandering eyes at Hillary Clinton’s gatherings and the embalmed visages of the McCain stalwarts at his assemblies.
Barack Obama will be elected President and the whole world will once again listen to America.

Posted by Konga at April 21, 2008 03:50 PM

Not to be completely facetious but this is a nice relaxed article by Eric on what he observes as generational change amongst the French populace, segued into an examination of the American election cycle. Nicely done.

I’m glad that he didn’t directly call for Hillary to withdraw from the race like many other people have, but has rather let a democratic process whittle down the competition in the Democratic Party. The process has toughened the Obama camp up whilst securing their position against the Clintonistas.

At the end though, what worries me is Obama’s intention to really “go after” people in Afghanistan. That boat has sailed and that war is lost. Any further incursions will make the job of those in the region who wish to politically engage with the world, just more difficult. Obama looks idealistic and the Wilsonian idealism of the neo-cons is one of their major characteristics. Just a heads up.

I am worried though

Posted by Yousuf at April 21, 2008 04:01 PM

Give me a Presidential candidate who will dare to question how much of America’s wealth is wasted in military spending and you’ll have a politician who might represent change. For now you have Obama, the best choice by default. But not a good choice.

Posted by Paul Whiteside at April 21, 2008 06:04 PM

I think Eric describes well the recent unfortunate but inevitable Sarkozification (to name a disease after one of its symptoms) of France. I’d like to call it “grand petit bourgeoisification”. Here’s the (truly) great (and no silly Left Bank intellectual) Alain Badiou’s take on it:

http://newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=2705

I agree with Paul that Obama can/will only do so much. I think his senior foreign policy adviser is the sinister Zbigniew Brzezinski, which perhaps bodes well for the Middle East, but certainly bodes ill for Russia and Eastern Europe.

I’m glad to see Yousuf also remembers the Questioner’s promise….

Posted by hyperbolus at April 21, 2008 11:28 PM

I’m glad to see Yousuf also remembers the Questioner’s promise….

No problem. I also remember but I am not afraid.

To put it bluntly… since when does the house-nigger ever get to be head of the family?

This guy is an empty suit. It is like Christ and anti-Christ (God forgive me). This guy is the anti-Chimp… meaning if there was no Chimp, he has nothing to react against and nothing to say in his speeches. He owes his popularity to the Chimp.

One must not forget, America is run by old white men. And I emphasize “white”. This guy is toast.

Posted by The Questioner at April 22, 2008 12:28 AM

Obama having Zbigniew Brzezinski and Samantha Power as his advisers is a good sign. Especially Zbigniew Brzezinski, since he, in my opinion, comes closest to being correct on about every foreign policy issue out of all the American commentators. But how much would Obama follow his advice is the question.

Posted by lore11 at April 22, 2008 04:29 PM

[Mr. Rove spells his first name with a K.]

How other nations respond to our next president is not a trivial point. The arrogance and willful ignorance of America’s current Chief Executive have certainly contributed to our greatly diminished international standing.

Posted by DonQ at April 23, 2008 05:06 PM

Obama is too good for America. Like Bobby Kennedy, someone with a fresh vision will not contend with the vested interests. Its not just white men running America. He with the cash buys the votes. You can bet oil and pharma corprations, and the Israeli lobby, are funneling huge amounts of dough into Hilary and McCains’s campaigns.
If Obama wins, America has hope. If not, bail while you still have assets to cash out.

Posted by shazam at April 24, 2008 10:21 AM

With all due respect to Mr. Margolis, I can’t understand those who believe that an elected Obama will herald a new golden age of altruistic American foreign policy.

If elected, Senator Obama will a very serious challenge to any attempt at reforming current U.S. foreign policy.

Obama’s father is a Muslim, and though he himself is a committed Christian, his presidential bid has been plagued by accusations of his ‘secret Islamic faith’ in an attempt by largely Jewish neocons and fundamentalist Protestants to paint him as subversive and subservient to the ‘enemies of America’ (aka Muslims). For this reason, Obama can never appear to be soft on so-called ‘Islamofascism’ or ‘radical Islam’.

Every peaceful overture towards the Muslim world will be seized upon by his critics as subservience to ‘the enemies of freedom’. In order to survive politically, he will be forced to temper his pro-peace agenda with a tinge of war-without-end.

The only Mid-East miracle the world is likely to see from Saint Obama is a bankrupt United States managing to pull billions of dollars in aid to Israel out of thin air.

Posted by The Red Prince at April 24, 2008 01:31 PM

When I see all the hopes everyone is pinning on Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or John McCain – that one or the other of them will be the new messiah who will somehow deliver America to the Promised Land on a ticket stamped “change”, I can’t help but look back at history. It took the world over 300 YEARS to recognize that Jesus Christ, who was marketing a similar ticket, may have been something other than a radical Jew who was out way of step with the establishment. And even then, the vast majority of today’s world still believes he was just another Jew who was different. But in our hyper-kinetic world of today, we can’t wait 300 years or 300 months or even 300 days. We want and expect instant results, and so we will all be sadly disappointed. Whoever is chosen will have a lot of difficulty living up to the tremendous hype they are all purveying, regardless of what Margolis or any of the contributors to this forum might think.

Posted by SmallG at April 24, 2008 10:05 PM

Scenario 1 - Swiftboating Barack Hussein Obama
We saw the trailer with the whole Jeremiah Wright episode that Hillary threw at him. And he grabbed it and threw it back at anybody who might want to attack him including Republicans. The result was an unwillingness to lie down and take it ala John Kerry. But as Eric has beautifully pointed it out, Karl Rove’s trained character assasins have already been let loose. They will fight dirty, but this time the Democratic challenger will fight back.

Not doing this was what cost John Kerry (and incidentially Al Gore) the election. Segments of the electorate felt that a man who could not fight character assasinations on himself would be unable to fight character assasinations on his country. Barack Hussein will avoid this and he will likely not repel but appeal to those electoral segments that made the just-quoted statement.

Scenario 2 - Down the Dark Election Thief Rabbit Hole

This is where it gets trippy [we had the crux; now we have the vapourous high;)]. 2008 could simply be stolen. Just as 2004 was and 2000 was; for GWB and the Republican party, they could just steal it for John McCain, with him doing nothing to stop or help the theft the election could be taken away plain and simple. This is where your shadowy “Old White Men” come in.

To state that American democracy is now sadly only figmentory is to invite high dudgeon from ones fellow conversationalists. This though, is sadly the truth that stares down at one from examining the prevailing situation over the last few years in America.

With GWB losing the popular vote yet retaining the office of the Presidency, let some one who has seen five illusory elections in his native Pakistan tell you that you have something sadly resembling the farce I have seen (and continue to see) in Islamabad. Maybe los yanquis should become friendlier with Ottawa, Paris or Berlin then you will learn some real democracy. But for now the feeling I get in the dear U S of A is the same feeling I get in the posh parts of Karachi; Lots of comfort, the freedom to do as I want when I want a little more curtailed, and the same capacity to make the politically powerful do what is right for the country: zero.

Posted by Yousuf at April 30, 2008 05:35 PM

It is the second situation which the neo-phytes of the Obama cult in some deep recess of their hearts feel and suffer, but they do not annunciate it candidly. To do so would be to admit the seasonal malfunctioning of their country every election cycle.

The fix is in for the coming voting season. The question is whether the Obama cult can overwhelm the system to cancel out the subtle lynching by laptop of electoral lists. We know they overcame it in ‘06; maybe they can do it again in ‘08.

Posted by Yousuf at April 30, 2008 05:40 PM

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