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Forum Post: The European view of the US Presidential Campaign

Posted 12 years ago on Jan. 28, 2012, 12:35 p.m. EST by nucleus (3291)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

The European view of the US Presidential Campaign

THE GERMAN PRESS

The Republican presidential contest in America is a "freak show," said Marc Pitzke in the German Der Spiegel. The candidates vie with one another to spew the most outrageous hard-right positions, denying evolution while endorsing torture and joking about electrocuting illegal immigrants. How did a major party in the world's sole superpower become a "club of liars, debtors, betrayers, adulterers, exaggerators, hypocrites, and ignoramuses?"

These know-nothings are enabled by a U.S. press that has been "neutered by the demands of political correctness" so that it can't say what's obvious: These people are daft! Instead, it "proclaims one clown after the next to be the new front-runner." The current favorite, Newt Gingrich, is actually considered an intellectual merely because he can create sentences with multiple clauses. Scarcely one has even the most basic grasp of foreign policy. One said Africa is a country, another that the Taliban rule in Libya. Collectively, "they expose a political, economic, geographic, and historical ignorance that makes George W. Bush look like a scholar."

The only part I take issue with is 'a U.S. press that has been "neutered by the demands of political correctness', as we all know it is corporate press acting solely with self-interest.

THE FRENCH PRESS

That's the scariest part, said Lorraine Millot in the Paris Liberation. The only GOP candidate who knows a thing about diplomacy, Jon Huntsman, is dead last in most polls. The others "careen to extreme positions that include starting new wars and abandoning old allies." And that's when they even have a position. Herman Cain, now thankfully out of the race, was the front-runner even though he couldn't find a single coherent word to say about President Obama's policy on Libya. He even boasted of knowing little about foreign countries. And yet it was his adultery, not his astounding ignorance that brought him down.

Please don't construe this as an endorsement for Huntsman, CEO of global Huntsman Chemical, with $9 billion annual revenue.

THE BRITISH PRESS

There's a simple explanation for this bizarre phenomenon, said Max Hastings in the London Daily Mail. In the "lunatic, gun-toting badlands of America's Hicksville, Tea Party country, it's considered suspiciously elitist to show any interest in modern science or the world beyond America's borders. Say what you like about British politics, no MP of any party would dare to offer themselves as town dogcatcher while knowing as little about the world as the Republican presidential candidates. We take public service seriously. Yet we in Britain, and everyone in the rest of the world, will suffer if one of the lunatics vying for the nomination makes it to the White House. The American political system has seldom, if ever, looked so inadequate."

Don't worry, said Matthew Norman in the London Independent. The fact that Gingrich is the latest threat to Mitt Romney's inevitability just "confirms how inevitable" Romney¹'s nomination is. The thrice-married, ethically challenged Gingrich is unlikable in the extreme. Which means the nominee will be Romney, "the slimiest, phoniest opportunist to run for president since ... well, ever." So sit back and enjoy this circus passing for a presidential election. It can't possibly end in a GOP victory. Can it?

Nope. And please don't construe this as an endorsement of GOP shadow candidate and corporate whore Barack Obama.

26 Comments

26 Comments


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[-] 4 points by epa1nter (4650) from Rutherford, NJ 12 years ago

What the foreign press may not understand is the reason these nitwit sociopaths are popular is largely because of the vast, deep reserves of stupidity of the American public. 1/3 of the population is functionally illiterate, (the worst rate in the developed world). In a recent survey, 80% couldn't find Vietnam on a map. And we're PROUD of our ignorance, disparaging "elites" like climate scientists because we believe we know the science better than they do as a result of reading an article on a Foxnews website. It is heartbreaking and maddening.

[-] 3 points by nucleus (3291) 12 years ago

The GOP has figured out how to tap those vast, deep reserves of stupidity.

If only we could find a way to use them for something useful ...

[-] 4 points by beautifulworld (23816) 12 years ago

It is always good to get the outsider's perspective on America. It is often much more accurate.

And, I like the pithy statements in italics which I assume are yours.

[-] 2 points by nucleus (3291) 12 years ago

Thanks --

[-] 3 points by nikko (62) 12 years ago

Beginning with Reagan, there has been a well orchestrated propaganda campaign to convince people that everything that was wrong was cause of government, This premise was used to crush labor, reduce financial, environmental, and media regulations. It was also used as a reason to hand over public services to the private sector to profit from. The 1 % of course supported this because it benefited them. Rudoph Murdoch (owner of The News Corporation which includes Fox News) made his fortune of off Reaganeconomics and uses his media empire to promote this nonsense. The thing is, every year this propaganda was notched up as the American sheeple bought into each level and moved farther and farther to the right - at least in rhetoric. They have left reality years ago, and a European looking in must be flabbergasted that so many Americans are out supporting ideologies clearly against their own economic interest.

[-] 1 points by nucleus (3291) 12 years ago

Well stated. It never ceases to amaze me joust how stupid people are, voting against their own self-interest every time.

[-] 1 points by nikko (62) 12 years ago

This is what worries me the most. Is how much misinformation people have - and are reacting on. This is not just my opinion, pew polls show this. Some things I recall from pew polls: Most thought we found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq Most thought Obama was responsible for the bank bailouts Most don't believe in evolution or global warming Most thought that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 911

If people believe things like this, are they going to know how to fix our economy?

[-] 3 points by GypsyKing (8708) 12 years ago

I simply never imagined America would sink to this level. There is just one word for it - frightening.

[-] 3 points by GirlFriday (17435) 12 years ago

That is a lot of bat shit crazy going on there.

[-] 3 points by TIOUAISE (2526) 12 years ago

Thanks for posting this.

I particularly relished the question in "Der Spiegel": "How did a major party in the world's sole superpower become a "club of liars, debtors, betrayers, adulterers, exaggerators, hypocrites, and ignoramuses?"

Why would the Republicans strive to find a candidate anyway when THEIR MAN OBAMA is so perfectly suited for the job?

(Note from TIOUAISE: This comment was collapsed from +3 to -12 by Thrasymaque's infamous bot. PublicCurrency's response also got hidden:

"@TIOUAISE "Why would the Republicans strive to find a candidate anyway when THEIR MAN OBAMA is so perfectly suited for the job?" Two wings - same bird -same s### !")

[-] 3 points by TIOUAISE (2526) 12 years ago

Thanks for posting this.

I particularly relished the question in "Der Spiegel": "How did a major party in the world's sole superpower become a "club of liars, debtors, betrayers, adulterers, exaggerators, hypocrites, and ignoramuses?"

Why would the Republicans strive to find a candidate anyway when THEIR MAN OBAMA is so perfectly suited for the job?

[-] 0 points by PublicCurrency (1387) 12 years ago

@TIOUAISE "Why would the Republicans strive to find a candidate anyway when THEIR MAN OBAMA is so perfectly suited for the job?"

Two wings - same bird -same s### !

[-] 2 points by GypsyKing (8708) 12 years ago

I just have to thank you for posting this much needed reality check. This whole situation has just gone too far! We are still, probably, the most powerful nation in the world, and It must give foreigners the heebeegeebees to see the political state we are in!

I know it scares the hell out of me!

[-] 2 points by shoozTroll (17632) 12 years ago

Someone need to inform the foreign press, that there are no longer ANY Republicans left.

They have been replaced by (R)epellican'ts.

They are most repelling, because they can't think.

[-] 1 points by mantis1 (28) 12 years ago

So we now know that the EU want Obama re elected.

[-] 7 points by CurveOfBindingEnergy (165) 12 years ago

Either that or they don't watch FOX news and listen to Rush Limbaugh.

[-] 0 points by SpartacusTheSlave (60) from Las Vegas, NV 12 years ago

I agree. Obama is nothing but a GOP shadow candidate.

[-] -1 points by Mrrotten (18) 12 years ago

How enlightening. Getting lectured by the failed social states of Europe -the racist British, the smug French, the charming, evolved Germans- oh yeah they're sooo much better than the barbaric Americans. People in glass house, etc.

[-] -3 points by FreeDiscussion1 (109) 12 years ago

Maybe the European press should be preparing stories on how much worse the economy is there and how big of a shit hole they have created with their liberal agendas.

[-] 6 points by nucleus (3291) 12 years ago

As opposed to the shit hole created here by conservative agendas? LOL

[-] 0 points by NKVD (55) 12 years ago

Your point?

[-] 5 points by nucleus (3291) 12 years ago

To point out the idiocy of the freebaser's comment.

It a global multinational financial conspiracy.

[-] 1 points by NKVD (55) 12 years ago

I see. Excellent!

[-] -2 points by FreeDiscussion1 (109) 12 years ago

America doesnt have half the problems Europe has.

[-] 2 points by nucleus (3291) 12 years ago

Europe is not a country, Einstein.

[-] -1 points by FreeDiscussion1 (109) 12 years ago

Europe is not a country? Where did YOU read on here that it was a country? I sure didnt read it. You did?