Another Country Heard From

Apparently the world would rather we elect Obama than McCain. No surprise. The question is, if you knew nothing about Obama or McCain, how would this information affect you?

It's not easy to say, but I think it'd make me more likely to vote for McCain. I'm not being perverse. I definitely think it's better the world like us. But the question is why do they prefer one candidate over the other? I'd have to guess it's because they figure one is more likely to do their bidding. (They may be wrong, of course.)

As I've said in the past, the job of the U.S. president is to do what's right for his country and explain it to the rest of the world, not the other way around. We have plenty of mutual interest with most countries, but as the world's greatest superpower, we sit in a unique position (and make a unique target). It's a "who will help me eat this bread" situation. Other countries, understandably, want us to use our power for their benefit, but they see the proper way to create this benefit quite differently (and in many different ways) from us. I'd rather we do it our way. This doesn't mean ignoring world opinion, but it hardly means we'll be pleasing them most of the time, either.

(Let me quote the great thinker Bill Cosby: "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.")