There is no shortage of things to say about the recently concluded Democratic and Republican conventions in the United States. As a “foreigner”, perhaps my take might be a little different from the standard CNN/Fox News fare. As I’ve stated in the past, one of the perks of my investment banking business, Blue Water Partners, is the opportunity I have to confer with people of almost every nationality from countries spanning the globe.
It has escaped no one’s attention that the United States has nominated a black man for its highest leadership position. While not quite as shocking as the possibility of the Germans nominating a Jew, it has definitely caught the world’s eye. Some of the non-European people I do business with are quite euphoric. There is skepticism about the willingness of the United States to actually elect him, however, especially in the southern states where racism is assumed to be alive and well. But the possibility has garnered plenty of attention.
McCain and Obama could not be more different in their personalities and speaking styles. And as the cable and network talking heads point out ad nauseum in their attempt to be even-handed, both are coming to the party with their own unique talents. A couple of things strike me as a non-American, however. One is the insistence on referring to the next president as the “leader of the free world”. If that is the case, shouldn’t we Canadians (or Europeans) get a vote, or a half vote? It brings to my mind the baseball World Series, which if I’m not mistaken has been won by an American team every year it has been played. But I can shrug that off as normal American hubris.
The Democratic convention was a remarkable display of passion. The Republican convention- not so much, except for the reception given the Vice Presidential nominee, Governor Sarah Palin. Apparently you Americans are big on the Hollywood ending – “virtual unknown PTO mom rises to become the supreme commander of the world” scenario. Life imitating art, for certain! It raised a few eyebrows in the lunch I had with several European businessmen last week. Only in America.
But even that unlikely script did not cause as much of a discussion as the Republican speaker who stated (and I’m paraphrasing) that Obama was ready to turn his back on Iraq while McCain was committed to stay until the war was won. Everyone I’ve spoken to was surprised that that notion was not challenged by the “political experts” after the speech. The consensus among people I’ve met was “what will the Americans have won?” The war has thrown trillions of dollars of debt onto this and future generations. It has cost thousands of American lives, and many more thousands of wounded veterans are returning home requiring medical attention for years to come. The price of gas has almost doubled in the US since the war began, their economy is in shambles, and certainly it would be difficult to defend the argument that the Middle East (and the world by extension) is safer today than in 2001. So what is it that Americans, or at least McCain Republicans think they are on the verge of winning?
At any rate, the open window on the American way of selecting its leaders is always entertaining. It is also helped immeasurably by such American inventions as Tivo and the fast-forward button.
By Myron Gushlak
