Why Bush won - a guide for foreigners

[question everything]

Why Bush won - a guide for foreigners

11/04/2004

The election victory of George Bush has surprised and dismayed many in the Middle East and Europe. It should not have been so surprising.

Last year, before the identity of the Democratic challenger was known, we predicted that Bush would win re-election. It was an easy prediction, because everyone knows it is unlikely that an incumbent president will be unseated during a war. However, a number of other factors, chiefly Kerry errors, also contributed to Kerry's loss:

Appeal to foreigners - Kerry may have lost the election when he mentioned the "global test." His emphasis on multilateralism was certainly a mistake. America originated what is called "disengagement" in Israel -- "us here and them there" in 1803 --with the Monroe doctrine. American distrust of Europe is almost genetic. Part of it is due to the fact that Americans mostly came from Europe and escaped European persecution and intrigue and have a very deep aversion to it. The isolationism that kept the US out of the league is not really dead. It expresses itself in different ways. Multilateralism defeated Wilson and it hung around to whack Kerry on the head too. One of the reasons Clinton defeated Bush is that he promised to concentrate on domestic problems. For many Americans, Europe and Asia are full of countries that are "out there somewhere" and of interest only to the extent that they cause trouble for the USA or take jobs away. Foreigners represent potential problems to be dealt with or supplicants in need of succor, not partners. Rightly or wrongly, Americans perceive that the rift with Europe is not about international legitimacy, but about power and competition for world prestige. For Americans, it is very strange indeed to hear the inventors of the force de frappe and Gaullist go-it-alone policy complaining that the US is doing the same thing.

More..

http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000309.htm

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. .

[OneBlueSky]

2. um . . . he forgot the most important reason . . .

THE BASTARDS ROBBED US BLIND! . . .

and that's all I have to say about THAT . . .