February 24: VwV was launched in February of 2008 and one of our first posts was titled, “After Fidel, Cuban bloggers discuss US candidates.” The post compiled Cuban bloggers thoughts on what the new U.S. president would do with the new leader of Cuba and so Obama’s infamous “without pre-conditions” line began, which haunted him throughout the campaign.

March 21: After videos of Obama’s reverend were brought to the public, the now President-elect delivered, arguably, one of the most memorable speeches in history on racism. VwV’s post, “World moved by Obama’s speech on race,” highlights what bloggers throughout the world had to say after hearing Obama’s thoughts on race.

April 17: As the first African-American president of the U.S., it was crucial for VwV to get the thoughts of African bloggers on Obama. In the post titled, “A letter from Africa,” bloggers throughout the large continent shared their opinions on the then, Democratic contender for nomination.

June 9: As America’s summer heated up, so did the presidential campaign but throughout the world. In the post, “Global: The world has a say!” VwV’s editor compiled a list of Web sites that allowed non-Americans to vote who they think is best for the states.

June 19: The rapid growth of technology played a major role in the 21st century presidential campaign. In the post, “Global: I’m voting Republican” covers what world bloggers thought about a controversial film by Charlie Steak.

August 29: This was the day the world was introduced to Sarah Palin – the governor of the U.S. state closest to Russia and John McCain’s Republican running mate. Without much information about the Republican VP pick, bloggers simply commented about McCain’s pick being a woman as compiled in the post, “The world reacts to Sarah Palin’s VP nomination.”

October 10: Race was not only prevalent on the Democratic campaign trail but also on the Republican, as rallies became heated. The post, “Racism on the Republican Trail?” includes just a few of the comments that were fluttering through the blogosphere about remarks made during Republican rallies.

October 24: The rise of technology returns with the post, “Dear American Voter: an international persepective.” The post covers Link TV’s project that allowed non-Americans to send letters to American voters via videos. The post includes just some of the prevalent thoughts of the voices without votes.

November 4: Mainstream media outlets weren't the only ones covering “breaking news.” As soon as word got out that Dixville, New Hampshire, was the first county to close their polls and count their votes, the blogosphere was on it. This post, “Dixville notch makes global blogosphere history” quotes the excitement of some bloggers and skepticism of others.

November 9: And, after it was all said and done…bloggers began to look back and analyze how Obama ran a successful campaign. In the post, “Social media and the making of the president,” analyses were offered by bloggers in three different countries of how social media played such a major factor in the campaign.

On the lighter side of the campaign, our silliest moments include: Tina Fey as Sarah Palin; Sarah Palin’s conversation with “Sarkozy;” And, Joe the unlicensed plumber.

Obama took alot of heat during his presidential campaign for saying that he would be wiling to sit down with so-called "enemy" Latin American countries, namely Cuba and Venezuela.

"With Obama, talks could happen anywhere he wants," Fidel Castro, America's longtime Cold War enemy, wrote in the latest of a series of columns he has published in state-run media since falling ill in 2006.

"He should remember the carrot-and-stick approach will not work with our country," Castro wrote of Obama. "The sovereign rights of the Cuban people are not negotiable."

Post extendido - Leer más 'Fidel Castro Says Obama is Someone to Converse With'...

Juan Gabriel Tokatlian is at the Universidad de San Andrés in Argentina He earned a doctorate in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University school of advanced international studies, and lived, researched and taught in Colombia from 1981-98

Also by Juan Gabriel Tokatlian in openDemocracy:

"Colombia needs a Contadora: a democratic proposal" (30 May 2006)

"The partition temptation: from Iraq to Latin America" (29 November 2006)

"Latin America, China, and the United States: a hopeful triangle " (9 February 2007)

"A Latin American's memo to Bush" (9 March 2007)

"After Bush: dealing with Hugo Chávez" (13 March 2007)

"The global drug war: beyond prohibition" (4 December 2007)

"Washington and Latin America: farewell, Monroe" (7 October 2008)Only in a dogmatic and exaggerated perspective can any of these three examples be seen as representing a serious threat to United States national interests and international security. They may be problematic, but they are minor concerns compared to far larger concerns: the global financial crisis, transnational terrorism, state collapse, climate change, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and traditional great-power rivalries.

In each case, the incoming president can design and implement a low-cost, high-effect strategy. First, Obama's outstanding national victory in popular votes and representative electors in the presidential election on 4 November 2008 included an exceptional triumph in Florida (home to so many families of Cuban emigrants) and was reinforced by Democratic victories in both houses of Congress. This may allow him gradually to dismantle the US embargo against Cuba and began serious conversations with the Raúl Castro government as part of the search for diplomatic normalisation.

Second, Obama can have a notable influence on Colombian political dynamics. The Farc is not defeated but has been strategically weakened by the events of 2007-08. President Álvaro Uribe's re-election for a controversial third term is not a prerequisite for the continued strengthening of the Colombian state. Democracy in this Andean country can be revitalised with progressive US aid. Human rights and trade can be, simultaneously, at the core of Washington's next set of undertakings vis-à-vis Bogotá. The US president-elect's signals and initiatives can generate a momentum for peace in the coming years.

Third, the case of Venezuela is more complex but not unmanageable. Pragmatism in Washington and Caracas has allowed for Venezuela's regular and secure provision of oil to two countries with which it has difficult relationships. At the same time, ideology has created important differences and a useless escalation of rhetoric. The traditional instruments of diplomacy have proven limited when dealing with Chávez: neither the failed coup d'etat of 2002 nor the containment-plus-encirclement strategy of post-2004 has worked. A new modus vivendi can be attained by a mixture of real incentives and mutual assurances.

In all three cases, Washington must be the leading actor; though it may be helped by frontline states (Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina). In each example, substantive and symbolic proposals can be arranged and deployed. If Barack Obama wants to exhibit change with great impact and low cost Latin America is the perfect place. If he hopes for appreciation and support worldwide the example of a potential new deal with Latin America may generate more trust and extended recognition. But the first move should come from Washington.

***

Also in openDemocracy on Barack Obama and the world:

John C Hulsman, "Memo to Obama: the middle east needs you" (11 November 2008)

A Wess Mitchell, "Memo to Obama: a Europe policy 3.0" (11 November 2008)

Anita Inder Singh, "Obama's Afghan challenge" (12 November 2008)

Zaid Al-Ali, "What Obama means for Iraq" (13 November 2008)

Boris Dolgin, "Obama: a Russian view" (13 November 2008)

"The United States and Iran: a new course" (24 November 2008) - a paper from top US-based experts calling for policy change

Plus - openUSA tracks the Obama project

La Foto Salió Movida [es] from Costa Rica thinks anything is possible, and that the country must draw inspiration from the example of the United States to make positive changes.

Una victoria que nos hace pensar en la posibilidad local de renovar nuestras organizaciones. De ampliarlas por medio de la generación de oportunidades para todos. Porque todos es lo que necesitamos. La balanza del ganar- perder no debería existir. La de todos ganar sí.

(…)

Y si no las hacemos, efectivamente nos vamos a quedar atrás. Este espíritu de oportunidad extendido por la televisión, Internet, la energía desde los Estados Unidos; para lo que nos debe servir, es para ejemplificar que los cambios son posibles. Hay que salirse de esa mente que piensa que hay que acumular para poder repartir, cuando lo que se ocupa es repartir sin tener que acumular. Nosotros también podemos. Yes We Can.

A victory that makes us think in local possibilities to renew our own organizations. To expand them through the creation of opportunities for all. Because for all is what we need. The balance between win-lose should not exist. We should all win.

(…)

If we don't do it, then effectively we will remain behind. This spirit of opportunity has extended through television, internet, the energy from the United States; what it means to us is to show that changes are possible. We must leave behind the mentality that we should collect in order to distribute, when we should think about distributing without needing to collect. We, too, can do it. Yes We Can.

However, to get to the position for change, countries often need to arrive via the ballot box. In some countries, the system is remarkably different than the U.S., as point out the blogger at Mi Isla Al Mediodia [es], who sees a lot of contrasts between the elections in the U.S. and at home:

Por acá los cubanos deberíamos aprender un poco de ese tema En asuntos de democracia somos un pueblo más bien ignorante. Tan mal estamos en esa materia, que en las últimas elecciones el gobierno, siempre tan gentil y preocupado, se ha encargado de poner un circulo muy grande en el centro de la boleta electoral para facilitarnos el voto. Marcar una X en el centro significa votar en un único y ágil movimiento, por todos los candidatos que el gobierno ha aprobado y validado antes por mostros (a través de una comisión de nominación). Este sencillo procedimiento se llama VOTO UNIDO, y nos ha resultado tan ameno y fácil de implementar, que prácticamente ha arrasado en las últimas tres elecciones para diputados a la asamblea nacional, que es la elección más importante a la que tenemos que enfrentarnos los cubanos, pues el presidente a su vez es electo por la asamblea.

Será interesante ver el día en que los candidatos de la boleta no hayan sido “filtrados” por una comisión tan “imparcial”, sino por la opinión pública, y será más interesante ver si algún día a los cubanos nos da por tomarnos más en serio ese momento en que cedemos nuestra minúscula porción de poder marcando con una X en algún sitio preestablecido.

Here, we Cubans must learn something from this. In matters of democracy, we are ignorant. We are so bad in this area, that in the last government elections, so gentle and worried, that they placed a giant circle in the middle of the ballot to help us with the vote. Marking an X in the middle means voting in a single and smooth motion, for all of the candidates that the government had approved and validated (through a nominating commission) This simple process is called UNITED VOTE, and it has become so pleasant and simple to implement, that it had made the last three elections for deputies for the national assembly so smooth, and that is the most important election that Cubans have to face, as the president is elected by the assembly.

It would be interesting to see the day when the candidates on the ballot are not “filtered” by a commission so “impartial,” but rather by public opinion, and it would be even more interesting to see Cubans take more seriously the moment when we don't give up our power and we don't mark an X on a preestablished place.

Other bloggers are wondering what the election of Obama might mean for foreign policy towards their own country. Edgar Ruiz Diaz has a list of questions regarding Obama's moves and asks, “what will Obama do for Paraguay?” His questions have received a lot of criticism from readers as being shortsighted, especially in terms of the question of race.

¿Obama sabe que Paraguay existe?

Si conoce la existencia y la realidad de Paraguay, ¿hará cambios radicales en la embajada de su país en Asunción?

¿Mantendrá en su cargo a la nueva embajadora norteamericana en Asunción o enviará a un negro como embajador?

¿Ordenará a los funcionarios de la embajada de su país en Asunción igualar la concesión de becas entre morochos, trigueños y rubios paraguayos?

¿Se preocupará de la zona de Triple Frontera, donde los belicosos de la administración Bush ven terroristas y financistas del terrorismo en Medio Oriente?

¿Vendrá alguna vez a Paraguay, viajar por el interior y tomar tereré o mate con los campesinos?

¿Qué pensará de las reinvindicaciones campesinas paraguayas?

¿Invitará al presidente Fernando Lugo a una nueva visita a la Casa Blanca?

¿Le importará Paraguay?

Does Obama know that Paraguay exists?

If he knows about the existence and reality of Paraguay, would he make radical changes in the American embassy in Asunción?

Would he keep the new U.S. ambassador in Asunción or would he send a black as ambassador?

Would he order the embassy employees in Asunción equally distribute scholarships among dark, fair, and light-skinned Paraguayans?

Would he be concerned about the Triple Border area, where the aggressive Bush administration sees terrorists and financiers of Middle Eastern terrorists?

Would he come to Paraguay, travel within the country and drink tereré or mate with the peasants?

What would he think about the Paraguayan peasant revindications?

Would he invited (Paraguayan president) Fernando Lugo for a new visit to the White House?

Would Paraguay matter to him?

ARUBA & GUYANA
Arubagirl dubbed the occasion a “happy day”, the significance of which was not lost on diaspora blogger Signifying Guyana:

Now it's real. America has elected its first Black president. And I hope many more like John Lewis, who were resilient in the face of a brutality that sought to deny them their basic human rights, are still around to cry and bear witness to this moment that is so full of America's cruel past, and its potentially healing present.

Her compatriots back home, however, were not as prepared to accept America's presidential choice as a positive step. Guyana 911 said:

I'm starting to get a little bad feeling about Obama. I am pretty confident that if McCain had a competent running mate it would of been a different tune tonight…to each his own I guess. What I'm trying to say is if Obama was a white man…people wouldn't have voted as shallowly in some cases. A fault with a democracy I suppose. It's a step in some sort of direction, however. Maybe the next time a black and a white man come up head to head it's just going to be on the issues.

Living Guyana didn't see what the big deal was and focused his attention on whether Obama, “as a sitting US president, will visit Guyana”:

He will have four years to do it. Will he? Or will he just ignore us as all other US presidents (save for Jimmy Carter) have?

JAMAICA
Jamaican diaspora blogger Geoffrey Philp, however, was of the firm opinion that “the election of Barack Hussein Obama to the highest office in the country has…changed the course of history”:

On many levels, Mr. Obama's election has meant a change in the way we think about each other. Many white Americans have had to put aside their fears of race retribution and their doubts that an African American had the intellectual acumen for the presidency. Within the African American community, there is a sense of triumph and euphoria–one of their own has risen from the nightmare of slavery, racism, and segregation to realize the theme encoded in the so-called “Negro Spirituals”—the dream of freedom.

And yet as revolutionary as Mr. Obama's election appears, there is also something profoundly traditional in the choice that is steeped in American values…Mr. Obama's presidency is symbolic of the change we desire. But as my Sunday school teacher used to say, ‘Faith without works is dead.' And as Mr. Obama early in the campaign reminded us, ‘This election is not about me, it's about you.' How much were we willing to give up, sacrifice, to become better versions of ourselves?

Well, we've taken the first step. But this change won't be easy.

Idle Yout Speeks agreed that Obama was “the best man for the job”, while Moppet waxed poetic about the fact that she could witness this day “in (her) sons' lifetime”:

Nobody's stereotype; America's ambition.

Obama is calmer than calm itself.

Realization of MLK's impossible dream.

Obama is vital, absolutely alive.
God bless him. God guide him. God grant him an' Biden wisdom.
God love him. It's impossible not to love him.

Abeng News Magazine's Kwame McPherson also thought Obama was poetry in motion, while YardFlex.com was quick to congratulate Obama and Biden on their win:

President Obama is definitely fresh, with a global background and global view that will serve to bolster his commitment to bring about change in Washington.

Jamaicans in the US have primarily backed the Obama / Joe Biden campaign and have been quite organized and outspoken, making sure to spread the word and positively impact the outcome.

Jamaicans are extremely proud of President Barack Obama and are thrilled by the success of their efforts in supporting what is the most exiting phenomenon that has appeared on the political scene in decades.

The magnitude of the moment was not lost on Long Bench, who was actually at Chicago's Grant Park:

What a moment. What a speech. What a speech. What depth of character. What a quality person. What a long time for the 106 year old woman from Atlanta to wait for someone of this caliber to step into the role of leader of this United States of America. How could anyone not want this man to be the person who represents them and acts on their behalf on the world stage? He even recognized his non-supporters and did not demonize them - what a display of grace and humility!

I was so moved by the whole thing, I could seriously even imagine myself living here in this city. America seems almost tolerable again. And you know what else? As I listened to him speak, I knew that he would never see it as politically expedient to declare that I, and persons who share my sexual orientation, could not have a place in his Cabinet. That would simply be unthinkable. He is a model of leadership that we could all learn something from.

You really had to be here. It was worth every last minute and cent to have witnessed and participated in this moment

Life, Unscripted, on the Rock wished “Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcom X could be alive to witness this historic day” and Jamaican-born author Pamela Mordecai “wanted to share some things (she) found in (her) little campaign to help Catholics and Evangelicals…see that it's perfectly alright to vote for Obama”:

Here's a quote from a Catholic man planning to vote for Barack Obama: ‘Before abortion was an issue for people, the plight of the african-american was an issue. That issue has never totally been resolved, largely because radical reconstruction in the post civil war era was highjacked by scared white people who didn't like the fact that African-americans were threatening to take the majority away from the whites in southern states… The civil right's movement brought us a little bit closer to equal rights, but not quite all the way. As this issue has been one for longer than the woe v. wade issue has been in existence, I'm voting to settle the problem which has been in longer need of correction.' (I've quoted him verbatim…)

Meanwhile, Francis Wade, a Jamaican who lived in the U.S. for many years before recently deciding to return to Kingston, admitted that he suddenly had “a strong feeling of missing being in America”:

As the results came in for Obama's victory — a landslide in electoral terms — the hope that I can dimly remember associating with the world's foremost democracy started to seep back in, after what seems like an eternity of dark gloom.

The Bush years made me glad to be living back home in Jamaica, away from the ugliness, wars and fear that started for me in 2000 with the Bush election “victory.”

Now, it seems, America is back… simply by demonstrating that so much is possible for a Black man, and by extension, for every person in the world who has ever been told that that “they can't.”

Whether or not Obama turns out to be a great president or not, at this point in time humanity has won an important victory of possibility over cynicism, resignation and despair.

BERMUDA
Further north, Bermudian bloggers were also weighing in. Breezeblog said he has “never been more optimistic about an American presidency” in his lifetime:

President-Elect Barack Obama … it still sounds scarcely believable. It was a privilege to watch this historic moment for America, minorities, and the world when an African-American who was unknown four years ago has achieved a truly astonishing political feat. The audacity of hope indeed.

Vexed Bermoothes thought that Obama “won the US election with a thundering mandate” and called November 4, 2008 “a remarkable day”:

Like Bermuda, America wants new faces and a determination to face the issues rather than wallow in past battles and fears. Put simply, the electorate is tired of the same old shit…the reasonable expectation that the victory is not a mandate for payback but a license to govern with transparency, accountability, and equity.

FreshieBlog declared that he “would be proud to be an American”, but Catch a fire lost his bet that McCain would win:

That's okay. As I’ve said before, I regard Mr. Obama as a lesser evil than Mr. McCain. Watching Mr. McCain’s concession speech though, one did have to wonder why he didn’t speak like that more during the campaign. With the close margin of victory by popular vote, more of that ‘real’ McCain may well have been enough to trump the negative Palin factor and win the election for him.

BARBADOS
Barbadian bloggers, some of the most politically outspoken in the region, were also celebrating the victory. Barbados Free Press was reveling in the accuracy of its election predictions:

In the middle of the Obama - Hillary runoff for the Democratic nomination, we declared that Obama would be the next President of the United States. We felt that victory months ago, but we also said that all this excitement over a black President would soon give way to the fact that Barack Obama’s policies with offshore banking and taxation are distinctly hostile to the interests of Barbados. Black majority nations are going to be very surprised if they think that President Obama will place their interests over the interests of his country.

Still, the image of the United States has been changed overnight and that change may help on many worldwide fronts where the USA has assumed responsibilities or powers in situations it has no right sticking its nose into.

Young diaspora blogger Jdid understood that he was witnessing a piece of history:

Stop for a minute. Just stop. Consider where you are right now in your life and where you were when you heard the news that Barack Obama had won the US presidential election. Bask in the elation and the euphoria, take in the sights and the sounds. Remember them!

Without overly indulging in hyperbole this is truly a momentous occasion. In my lifetime so far I've seen such events as the end of apartheid and the end of the cold war. Those were moments back then that I hoped might come but still never really dreamed would occur. Similarly but oh so much more of a dream, pipe dream even, was the concept of a black president in the US.

We have a new hero. Especially for us who are here in North America as minorities. We no longer only need look to foreign leaders or dead African kings and Pharaohs or Marcus, Martin and Malcolm to point out to our children what black people have and can achieved. We have a real live person closer to home who isn't a rapper, who isn't an athlete, who isn't an entertainer who we can say has achieved the impossible, defied the odds, made it to the very top and looks like you and I.

Cheese-on-bread! added:

Barack Obama's 349 electoral votes to John McCain's 162 signal more than a Democratic win over the Republicans; they symbolise a chance for the world to experience a paradigm shift, to look beyond race and the colour of a man's skin to value his mettle and soul. All I can say is that I feel proud that my son can grow up in a world where he can look at Obama's example and dare to dream.

…while Caribbean Lionesse apologized to America:

America… my bad. We were wrong about you. We completely underestimated you.
And this morning, I am happy to admit I was wrong.

I did not think that Americans were ready to elect a black president. I was convinced, as we all were, that you could not overcome your ‘original sin' of slavery that has tainted racial relations for all of your existence.

Clearly, President-elect Barack Obama saw something that the rest of us did not see. Clearly, you knew within yourself that the world was wrong. That you were bigger and you had come far enough and you were ready.

I am in awe.

CUBA
Cuban bloggers - particularly those in the diaspora - may also have been in awe, but for different reasons. Babalu Blog was gracious about the loss:

Despite my guy having lost and whatever negative feelings that brought upon me, I couldnt help but smile as I watched and listened to fellow Americans rejoicing for being Americans. Believe it or not, it made me feel good. This is, indeed, the greatest country on Earth.

So, despite some trepidation over President elect Obama's possible future policies, and despite a few folks stating overtly that anyone that voted for McCain had to be 'stupid', I'd like to congratulate the President elect and his supporters.

The Cuban Triangle also acknowledged the historical significance of the victory, as he told of an encounter he had at one of Obama's rallies:

Long before the program began, I turned to a black man standing next to me and made an attempt at light humor, telling him that in about three and a half hours, the program would be starting right up.

“I’ve been waiting my whole life,” he responded.

I got the point.

Blog for Cuba thought that Obama's win validates “what we conservatives have always understood, that the USA is the greatest country on earth, a beacon of freedom, where by the pursuit of happiness and the virtue of hard work anyone, no matter how humble their birth, can attain their dreams”. But he also made sure to turn the spotlight right back to Cuba:

Meanwhile, back in the gulag, Cuba's political prisoners are still not free, and 12 million Cubans still lack Human Rights, and are still Castro's slaves. This morning, just like yesterday Cubans still must resolver to put food in their stomachs, and to survive the repression and hardships the Castro dictatorship imposes upon them.

Obama said he will change the world. We shall see.

ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES & DOMINICA
Bloggers from the Windward Islands also had their say. Abeni was proud to announce that…

After centuries of subjugation and segregation I am unashamedly celebrating the fact that a black man is now the Commander in Chief of the United States of the America.

…while Dominica Weekly simply said:

Change has come to America and the world.

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
Down at the southern end of the Caribbean archipelago, bloggers were also celebrating. Coffeewallah had just two words - Barack Obama:

The world changed last night, an infinitesimal shift, those tiny ripples are going to get bigger as the weeks go by, because despite the political game, there is now someone whose office holds so much world significance, whose thinking seems to be radically different from business as usual.

Good luck to you Mr. President.

Media Watch thought that McCain's concession speech contained “lessons for local politicians on how to concede defeat without dividing a nation”, while KnowProSE.com wondered about the role of the Internet in Barack Obama's success - “not in the media blitzes that were focused on the American people, but through discussion using the Internet.”

Notes from Port of Spain urged people to savour the moment:

It's enough to see the end of cowboy politics, at least for now. To see the back of Dubya and Dick and Rumsfeld and Rove, and the shame and disgrace they have brought upon America. To see the end of a man who spent eight presidential years working through private traumas concerning his father. To have avoided the possibility of a President Palin. To move away from the politics of aggression, belligerence, arrogance and pugnacity.

That's more than enough for one sun-soaked morning.

Enjoying the moment was just what Trinidadian diaspora bloggers were doing, with photo-blogger Chookooloonks saying:

I admit it: I burst into tears.

Finally, Guanaguanare said that he looked forward to the U.S. being rewarded for their courage:

Many Americans understood that it could not be business as usual and they voted for change. Only time will tell what will be accomplished in the future but I want to acknowledge what went into the momentous victory that was accomplished tonight. I dream of a better day for all people all over the world. I dare to believe that this might be a beginning.

Cuba's former president said he delayed weighing in until the US Election Day so that “no one would have time to say I wrote something that could be utilized by the candidates in their campaigns.”

“Without a doubt, Obama is more intelligent, cultured and levelheaded than his Republican adversary,” Castro said. “McCain is old, bellicose, uncultured, of little intelligence and not healthy.”

Diaspora blogger Signifyin' Guyana did her civic duty and voted earlier in the day. While she says there was “not much excitement” to the voting process, the anticipation in her household has been building as her son “has caught the spirit”:

He's only five years old, but he knows something big may happen tonight. So as he waits to go to the polls with his dad, dressed in sweats and a red, white, and blue t-shirt (he dressed himself), I watch with pride, and I hope and pray he's not disappointed.

Another diaspora blogger, Liza from Puerto Rico, said that the voting process was emotional for her:

I got so overwhelmed by this historic moment that I totally lost it. I came out crying from the voting booth.

All my neighbors were asking what was wrong. I couldn't say anything and Mark, who was still around, just said: ‘She's having a moment.'

I just never thought I'd see the day…I can't wait for the election results and for the words ‘Barack Obama is officially the next president of the United States'. I will have lots of tissues handy this time around.

Meanwhile, both Cuban diaspora blogger Babalu and Letters from Grenada are liveblogging the election, one on either side of the political divide. But Barbados is firmly on the Obama bandwagon, with Cheese-on-bread! saying:

Well, this is it. As the pundits like to say, no matter the outcome, history will be made. Apart from the obvious history that would be made with a win by Barack Obama, if John McCain were to (gasp) win he would be the oldest candidate to assume that position.

As Obama himself said yesterday, it will be fun to see how the story ends. His campaign has been phenomenal, and he has certainly gone the distance, something few of us could have dared to dream.

So, as we await the outcome of this heated race, I'll wish both the candidates luck…

The Bajan Dream Project echoes her sentiment:

Barack Obama has already done much for the African American community in the United States, and continues to draw admiration and inspire hope in millions in diverse regions of the World - Barbados not excluded. Whether he wins or loses, a lesson can be learnt from Barack Obama’s candidacy, and his message will redefine history for many minorities who once felt - but can no more feel - that their history as underdogs would forever cement their future as such. For that reason alone - for helping so many to ‘emancipate themselves from mental slavery’ - this candidacy transcends politics.

Havana-based Generation Y notices a change of mood in Cuba:

The street is not the same, nor are the neighbors who usually gossip in the lines at the markets; today they speak of universal themes. They raise their eyebrows and point towards the north, while they make predictions about who will be elected at the polls in the U.S. I don’t remember having lived through such a commotion during the Cuban presidential elections last February.

The cobbler in my building took a stand for one candidate and the old woman who sells flowers has been wearing a shirt with the Obama logo. Our boring trajectory of two presidents in fifty years has exacerbated the curiosity over foreign elections. We also know that the decision of U.S. voters will reverberate here and not so metaphorically as the flutter of a butterfly in the Amazon. he remittances that allow thousands of Cuban families to get to the end of the month come primarily from the other shore, where a portion of this Island lives, and where the insults—“worms,” traitors” and “mafiosos”—have not managed to sever our emotional and family ties. The political discourse of our own leaders would lose effectiveness without the United States in the role of the enemy. Never, as today, has the destiny of Cuba been so clearly separated, and yet so dependent, on what happens ninety miles away.

Still, she has her reservations:

In the face of the “uncertain prognosis” we show inside our country, there are those who assert that today’s results will either launch or derail, definitively, the cart of reforms in Cuba.

I would prefer that we drive ourselves, but very few want to exchange the work of the forecaster for the hard task of making things happen. So when I write this post, the capricious vehicle of change seems to be stuck in a rut at the side of the road. I have my doubts about whether what happens this Tuesday will get it moving.

Bahamian Nicolette Bethel is thrilled to be in New York City for this auspicious day:

Being in the US on election day, especially this election day, is historic.

This election is historic. It’s already been so — the fact that two major contenders for president were visible minorities, albeit in the same party. Whoever wins will make history — the first black president, the first female vice-president, the oldest president. But history has already been made.

She also thinks that the Bahamas could stand to learn a few lessons from the US:

Being on the outside in American elections, watching a fraction of the American people go to the polls and elect leaders whose impact resonated far beyond the borders of the USA, and suffering the consequences of those choices, has not been easy…yes, I voted in the if-the-world-could-vote poll, and yes, I voted for Obama. But I’m above all a Bahamian, and Bahamians above all are pragmatic people, and fundamentally what matters is what have we learned from this process? What have we learned from the involvement of ordinary Bahamians in the Obama campaign? What have we learned from the real chance of real change, and how will that affect us at home?

Because our last election was a joke. We never questioned our candidates about anything likely to affect us and our nation in the long run. We never demanded from them what we have seen from the American candidates. We never dissected the spin, if spin it was; we never educated ourselves in any general sense on issues, on anything that might actually matter. No. We preferred to go along with what the newspapers said, with what the talk shows said, voting from emotion rather than reason, allowing both parties to get away with sheer idiocy that has very little to do with the world in which we find ourselves.

But fellow Bahamian Rick Lowe is not quite convinced:

It looks like Barak Obama will win the presidency of the United States today and history will be made…There is no doubt that he has a great delivery and a pleasant way about him. But that does not change the circumstances he will face in office which will all but guarantee he cannot fulfil his promises.

I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that he starts to back track in his inauguration speech as the economic reality of his political promises start to set in. And this I believe will lead to dissatisfaction with his presidency sooner rather than later. At the end of the day we all need to wish Obama well, and hope that his economic advisors steer him away from these self destructive policies as The Bahamas is highly dependent on the US, and this is unlikely to change in the years ahead.

As the night wears on, the Caribbean, like the rest of the world, will need to wait and see.

Barbados Free Press doesn't mince words:

There is a lot at stake in the US Presidential election that goes far beyond who will be the leader of that country for the next four years. Whether Obama is white, black, coffee or purple doesn’t count anything beside the specter of the United States continuing along it’s current path.

That military-industrial complex has run free since 9/11 and continues to do so. Under the guise of protecting people from Muslim terrorists, the United States government and other world governments have convinced their populations to surrender hard-won freedoms and individual rights. Breaches of the existing human rights and personal freedoms laws by authorities are treated with indifference by all sectors of Western governments - and that includes the Barbados government.

There is much at stake in the US election for Barbados and the rest of the world.

Blogging from Trinidad and Tobago, This Beach Called Life refers to a poll published in The Economist magazine to underscore the fact that the world appears to favour Barack Obama:

I don’t intend to tell Americans who to vote for but the World seems to have made up its mind.

Jamaican blog A Fe Me Page Dis Iyah even posts some videos to prove the extent to which “the Caribbean community supports Barack Obama”, but some bloggers are not comfortable counting their chickens just yet. Numalali, from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, says:

All the indicators point to a victory for Barack Obama. He is ahead on every predictive index. But, can we count on the the polls, the pundits and the predictions? Is America ready for a black man, a black woman, a black family in charge of the White House? Like millions around the world I await with bated breath.

In a follow-up post, Numalali continues:

The whole world is in a frenzy. Both Obama critics and supporters are doing all they they could to either diefy or demonize him. Let us all wait and see what happens on Tuesday.

Womanish Words (from the Bahamas) is optimistic:

Amazing days, America appears to be on the verge of electing a Black president. This is really a ray of light and hope for the world. Obama’s election will change everything. Change is good. I’m grateful to be here to witness it. I grew up electing Black prime ministers. But there I was, keening for a good thirty three seconds at the thought of a new world leader who is actually a good man. And just to make it all the better, he's Black. He's a symbol of a new day dawning, a new generation emerging, a new era beginning. After the tears, I forced myself to remember that it's not over yet.

It certainly isn't over yet. Circles Robinson, blogging from Havana, knows that there is a lot at stake:

The US elections on Tuesday have overshadowed my thoughts. I’m not alone. A lot of people on the island are wondering what’s going to happen, as is a good chunk of the world.

Up until the explosion of the current financial crisis, I firmly believed that John McCain was going to be the next president, the same way that I thought George W. Bush would win reelection in 2004.

The race and terror cards and preference for the old but known seemed to me more powerful than anything the Obama campaign could come up with.

I still fear that McCain has a shot to win, but I’m no longer so sure of my predictions for the US electorate.

There’s a lot of responsibility on the backs of US voters on Tuesday. Cubans like the rest of the world will be watching with angst.

An American living in the Caribbean writes in her blog, Letters from Grenada:

I admit I’m more than a little nervous. I’m a lot nervous.

I can easily recall how casually confident I was in 2000. In 2004 I was fiercely confident, because how could lightning strike twice? (Answer: Easily, if you’re still standing in the same place.)

But it will be different this time! Wednesday’s going to a (real) new morning in America.

Bermudian blogger The Devil Island can't stand the tension and posts one of his signature cartoons to prove it, while his compatriot Breezeblog implores Americans to “do the right thing - for humanity’s sake”:

With just a few hours to go, here’s hoping that Americans finally do the right thing and make history by electing Barack Obama President. They couldn’t possibly screw it up a third time, could they?

Barbados Underground has no problem with calling a win for Obama “by a landslide”:

If we are to judge by the results of our unscientific poll, Obama will be the winner of the USA 2008 Presidential election with over 400 electoral votes. After careful analysis we are prepared to say that Democrat Presidential hopeful Barack Obama will win with 300+ Electoral votes.

It has been an amazing campaign for several reasons. As the world watches, the United States of America seems set to catapult a man of colour into the White House. When it does happen the world maybe changed forever.

Trinidad-based Coffeewallah, who maintains that “every day is history in the making”, concedes that today is a “red letter day” for America:

Whatever happens…there will a first, either first Black American President or first Woman Vice President. I wonder at the American people who constantly cannot understand why the rest of the world “does not like us”, we've seen up close and personal what you really think. Those of us that are a different colour have no illusions at all, as we say in the Caribbean, “your business in the road”. I hope that Barack Obama wins, decisively. What a message that's going to send…

Chookooloonks, a Trinidad diaspora blogger who is also a US citizen, says:

Everything is about to change. Regardless of who wins the election, in my opinion this has been one of the hottest, most contentious races in recent history. Regardless of who wins the election, there will be a new president of the United States, the first new American leader in 8 years, and the results of this election will have global impact. Regardless of who wins the election, things are going to change.

And, for the first time since I became a U.S. citizen 14 years ago, I find myself really emotionally invested in the outcome: dear God, I care. I really, really care.

The opportunity to vote is one of those times when you get to draw a line in the sand, put your stake in the ground, and do whatever other metaphor you can think of that says, “hear me, dammit. I count. I matter. I believe this to be true.” The act of pulling that lever, or pressing that button, or clicking that icon is a very, very powerful thing. Do not believe that your vote doesn't matter. It matters. It so matters.

Caribbean bloggers - most of them anyway - cannot pull that lever, or press that button or click that icon. But they can make their voices heard. Antilles, the weblog of the Caribbean Review of Books, sums it up this way:

Finally: it seems every newspaper and magazine in the world has endorsed one candidate or another…with Obama the overwhelmingly popular choice. Your Antilles blogger, like most of the world's population, can't vote, but feels he has a lot at stake in tomorrow's events. If the CRB were to endorse a candidate, who would it be? The smart, eloquent, cool, confident one who looks like he could be from the Caribbean, of course–that one.

The London Times broke the story on October 30, and both global mainstream media and bloggers followed suit.

Two days later, we learned from the Associated Press that Onyango is living here illegally, which complicates issues considering she contributed $260 to her nephew's presidential campaign.

Cuban blogger Zury echoes the Times' find and opines:

I don't know about you, but with the millions he made with the book and being that he referred to his aunt, with such affection, you would think, he would share his wealth, like he wants to do with the wealthiest Americans.

“If she is violating laws, those laws have to be obeyed,” Obama told CBS News. “We're a nation of laws. Obviously that doesn't lessen my concern for her. I haven't been able to be in touch with her. But I'm a strong believer that you have to obey the laws.”

Canadian blogger Jonathan Strong, a conservative, is not convinced, questioning recent poll data whether Obama and John McCain aren't closer in American viewpoints, but moreover positing Obama was denying facts to the American people:

It is illegal to accept campaign contributions from those who don't hold a Green Card or are not citizens. Obama's campaign has come under fire for having very loose credit card rules on for online donations. It is suspected that he may have received millions of dollars in illegal donations from overseas and foreigners.

Obama is denying that he knew his aunt was in the US illegally, but such denials from Obama are common place. He denied being close to Rev. Wright, and being in the church congregation when racist statements were made. He denied being friends with Bill Ayers. He denies being close to Rashid Khalidi and Tony Rezko… you get the picture.

Across the pond, Dutch blogger Michael van der Galien of PoliGazette suggests it is unfair to criticize Obama for failing to chastise his aunt:

Although it would be fascinating to hear this woman’s life story, those who go after both her and Obama on this subject are crossing the line of decency and normal political discourse. This aunt is not running for president, Obama is. It is fair to look at how he treats relatives, especially if he bragged about having great relationships with them in his books, but those relatives themselves cannot be touched.

Some readers of conservative blog Ace of Spades argued that Onyango’s status indicates Obama may have known his aunt was in the country illegally and may even have assisted her. If Obama was running on a strict anti-illegal immigration platform, calling on friends and relatives of illegal immigrants to report those people to immigration officials so they can be deported, Obama could potentially be criticized. But that is not the case. Obama is not pretending to be a hardliner on the issue of immigration.

Furthermore, Onyango is Obama’s aunt. If Obama knew she was here illegally, and he probably did, does anyone truly suggest he should have reported her to authorities? His own aunt? That is what the Hitler Jugend and youth organizations in the Soviet Union did. But in any normal, humane society, such behavior would be condemned as immoral, unthankful and worse. It would be betrayal of the worst kind: betrayal of one’s own relatives. It does not get much worse than that. Not in any decent society, at least.

Additionally, since the issue of Onyango’s status as an illegal alien does not tell us anything about Obama being a hypocrite or worse, the only net effect of making this a big issue is to attack a person who is not running for office. This woman should be considered off limits.

Among other bloggers on the issue, few captured the essence of Kyle from Citizen Orange, a U.S.-based and Guatemala-inspired group blog. Kyle tracked progressive bloggers on both sides of the Auntie Zeituni issue and concluded:

The debate over this story has devolved into one of Republican nativism and Democrats and their allies either describing this as smear or running as far away from this as they can. If having an unauthorized migrant relative is a smear, than smear me too.

(Hat tip to Thai blog Jotman, via British blog Ten Percent.)

After quoting various sources on the matter, including a pro-migrant immigration lawyer who suggests the leak to the AP was a federal law enforcement official, Kyle further theorized:

[W]hile nativists are screaming “ILLEGAL” at the top of their lungs and “progressives” are refusing to defend unauthorized migrants, it appears that everyone's lost sight of who the real “ILLEGAL” is. That “federal law enforcement agent” broke U.S. immigration law. Perhaps the anonymous source should be deported?

…In pointing fingers no one even thought to protect the rights of Obama's aunt as an asylee. This disclosure could possible result in great harm for Obama's aunt, especially as the situation in Kenya has deteriorated.

Malawi blogger Steve Sharra, a visiting professor of philosophy at Michigan State University, intellectualizes Oyango's and Obama's African burden in a long piece of prose you can read on your own.

Extracting pieces from his blog post is the following:

In the documentary Life and Debt about the effects of IMF’s structural adjustment policies on Third World economies, by Stephanie Black, there’s a contrast made about what it takes for an American to enter Jamaica, and what it takes for a Jamaican to enter the US. For the former, it is a mere driver’s license at the port of entry. For the latter, as with most Third World people around the world, it is a herculean, heart-rending process that stretches for months. Several thousands of visa applications get rejected every single day, each of them having paid the equivalent of a non-refundable US$100. The inside of the embassy itself is a place that reduces one to fear and humiliation, requiring one to prove one’s humanity before one is considered worthy of entry.

Sharra continues:

The burden for the kind of change the world is anticipating ought not to be carried by Obama alone, if at all. As Dr. Makau Mutua, Dean and Professor of Law at State University of New York at Buffalo wrote in June 2008, the US presidency is very different from the African presidency, and most other presidencies for that matter. If elected, Obama’s constituency will be the numerous interest groups who wield influence in US domestic and foreign policy. Obama may personally understand the importance of changing the image of Africa and Africans in the eyes of Americans, but it will have to be a slow, gradual, deliberate process, or else it may merely provoke unintended consequences. And in the meantime, Aunt Zeituni has to accept her place in the hierarchy, follow the law, and return to Kenya.

And Kenya? What does Kenya say?

Failing to find Kenyan bloggers on the issue, the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation comes to the rescue with a report by Zipporah Njeri of the Kenyan News Agency who writes from Nyang'oma Kogelo, the village where Obama's father was born.

Njeri didn't write about Zeituni Onyango but did speak to Barack Obama's paternal grandmother, Sarah Onyango Obama, who continues to live in Kogelo village and follows her grandson's progress overseas. She said:

Obama is God's gift to the world, and many people from various parts of the world have confirmed this to me. If it happens that our son wins, come back here on Wednesday and you will witness the whole village in dancing frenzy!

Before anyone suggests that Sarah might consider emigrating to America, she shook her head to the reporter and exclaimed, “Home is home and remains the best place for a person of my age.”

With that in mind, let’s catch on the last bit of campaign news.

It was last week when John McCain’s campaign attempted to tie Barack Obama to a certain Rashid Khalidi, whom they refer to (at different times) as a “neo-nazi,” “radical professor,” a “former PLO spokesman” who is an “anti-Semite” and a “political ally” of the Democratic candidate for President.

Rashid Khalidi is, in fact, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. He is American born and has denied working for the Palestine Liberation Organization. He did teach at the University of Chicago, where his family came to know the Obama’s. In April, the Los Angeles Times reported that Obama attended and spoke at a 2003 farewell party for Khalidi when he left for New York.

The McCain campaign has demanded the newspaper release a video it possess of the event, claiming that voters should know more about the relationship between Obama and Khalidi. The Republican campaign also said that former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers attended the party, which the LA Times did not report. Russ Stanton, editor of the LA Times, argues the tape was given to the newspaper by a confidential source on the condition they not release it.

The Obama camp professed that Khalidi is not an advisor to the campaign and pointed out that the International Republican Institute (where John McCain is the Chairman of the Board) admitted to funding projects for the Center for Palestine Research and Studies during the 1990s. Khalidi was a founder of this organization and had served on the board of directors.

Anyway, let’s get to the bloggers.

Could an Israel hater be on his way to the White House? From Cuban-American blog Babalu:

The fact that the Times refuses to release a video tape of US Presidential candidate Barack Obama attending a going away party for former P.L.O. operative Rashid Khalidi has outraged many; but the real outrage is the fact that someone who attended what was most probably a Jew bashing party is a hairs-breath away from occupying the White House. Just imagine the outrage if McCain had been an active presence at a going away party for a member of the KKK.

If Obama’s ties to Middle East terrorists don’t trouble you, they should.

A comment to the post from Mandingo takes umbrage in the Left’s dislike of Sarah Palin while supporting a guy like Rashid Khalidi:

The sad thing is that all the secular well educated liberal Jews in the Upper West Side of New York and around the nation are still voting for Obama because they fear the Republican party, especially Sarah Palin, as some kind of Torquemada fascist Christian fundamentalist movement that will institute pogroms against their families. They are so wrong, but out of white guilt they are voting for a man Obama that has ties to terrorists and that will most probably abandon the state of Israel, Taiwan, and most certainly dissidence in Cuba!

From Israel, Dr. Savta’s weblog gives us a quick note on a new form of cognitive dissonance:

1) For 20 years, Barack Obama sat in Reverend Wright’s congregation and didn’t know that he preached anti-Semitic, anti-white, anti-American sermons
2) Barack Obama didn’t know that Bill Ayres was an unrepentant terrorist.
3) Barack Obama didn’t know that his aunt was living in the US illegally.

Do we really want a president who is that oblivious?

Melanie Phillips, a columnist who also maintains a blog at the Spectator in the United Kingdom worries that Obama isn’t providing his true views on Jihadism:

Senator McCain declared that the threat to the Homeland is a movement and an ideology, Jihadism. Senator Obama didn't tell us if that is his view as well. Instead we saw shreds of political alliances between his campaign and groups affiliated with this particular ideology. I am not impressed with the ‘Weather Underground’ network story as much as I am concerned about the access the political Jihadists will have to US National Security.

If that happens, Homeland Security will be at risk. Hence until I get answers to this fundamental question from Senator Obama's campaign, I do have a national security concern. Until then I can project a spread of Jihadi sympathizer networks within the country and even throughout many layers of Government. Over four years, and possibly eight, such a growth would become malignant. Over less than a decade, Americans could find themselves in situations never experienced since the Civil War.

Guy Rundle Live from Australia thinks that this campaign against Khalidi may gain some traction mostly because America's dysfunctional relationship with Israel.

No-one’s accusing Rashid Khalidi of any crimes, but the whole hypocritical US thing about Palestine and the intifada is so tangled that the Obama-Ayers-Rashid circle of acquiantanceship /friendship in NY/Chicago can be made to look like some deep cover plot to take the Presidency.

The smoking gun would be the video the LA Times has and won’t release because of journalist-source confidentiality. But does any footage remain unreleased these days? To be sure, if it hit the streets on Sunday or Monday, and it’s Obama laughing when someone says ‘Intifada? hell I married her!’ or something, or even sitting there while someone goes on a great Satan rant, then that could be a killer.

Me, I’d love to have a friend of communists and Palestinian radicals in the white house, but that’s kinda why team Obama haven’t led with that angle.

However, he blames the right wing media for not picking up on the story earlier:

Still it’s really weird that this was all there in plain sight - the LA Times report was in 2007 - and no-one on the right picked it up until a Wall Street Journal writer added it to the Ayers material about a fortnight ago. The right keeps going on about silencing by the media, but FOX, and Limbaugh et al could have been running it for yonks.

Possibly they were dissuaded by the fact that McCain’s International Republican Institute gave the guy a half million dollars - enough money to look kinda dumb, compared to having dinners with him. But since McCain has nothing to lose well, he’s got nothing to lose.

Otto, from Otto’s Random Thoughts has a personal tie — a brush with campaign greatness, if you will. It so happens that Khalidi was the Phd supervisor to Otto’s Phd supervisor at the School of African and Oriental Studies at the University of London:

I saw him speak once at SOAS. I thought his talk was very good. It was certainly not “radical” compared to many other speakers on Palestine at SOAS. Indeed, other than in the context of US politics, where any criticism of the State of Israel is taken as “radical” could Khalidi be considered anything, but a moderate. But, of course in the US even opposition to such extreme Israeli policies as torture and killing children is often denounced as “anti-semitism.”

Will at KABOBFest, writes a defense of Rashid Khalidi and finds the McCain verging on desperation.

Besides the obvious point that the Rashid Khalidi-Obama connection is a complete non-story, it also reeks of the ugliness of political desperation: hate-mongering.

Arab-bashing, to borrow liberally from the saying about anti-Semitism, is the ideology of scoundrels. How easily talking heads readily assume that professor Rashid Khalidi is an anti-Semite because he criticizes Israel. This is driven not by the “content of his character” or the substance of his critiques, but by his ethnicity. His Arabness is what enables the failure by anyone to challenge this. And an innocent and highly recognized scholar’s name is trudged through the mud

The post also contains a link to a two-year-old interview KABOBFest conducted with Khalidi.

The resolution, entitled “necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba,” was accepted by 185 ‘yes’ votes and three ‘no’ votes. Two members declined to vote.

U.S. President George W. Bush anticipated today’s when meeting with Cuban Americans in Florida earlier this month. He told them that “we will change our policy when the people running Cuba free people of conscience from the prisons. But until then, we won’t change.”

Last year, the same resolution was passed by the UN’s General Assembly with 184 vs. 4 votes.

©2008 PoliGazette. All Rights Reserved.

1. Republicans didn’t want the crown

Cuban blogger Tomás Estrada-Palma writes in his self-titled blog that the Republican Party is throwing the towel and has been.

“I know many Cuban exiles are displeased with me for not supporting McCain. But they should be more angry with the Republican Party hacks for throwing Mac under the election bus. I was suspicious when the Republican Party leadership promoted McCain's candidacy after they use to hate him. Then they got him Sarah Palin as a running mate and I became more curious. Does the Republican Party leadership want McCain to lose? It sure seemed odd.”

He further states that the Republican Party doesn’t want the leadership position because of the current state of the nation and further compares the U.S. to Cuba.

“No, the Republican Party elite does not want the presidency next go around. They know how bad the economy really is and how bad things are going to be next year and beyond. They feel it is better for the long term to have Obama in the hot seat, especially since he is not an American citizen and has committed a felony by misrepresenting his place of birth to hide the fact that he is unqualified constitutionally to hold the office of the presidency. I know this to be a fact because rather than just producing a birth certificate to settle the court challenge Obama and the Democrat party have quashed the suit on technicalities. But the case will go forward next year causing a Constitutional crisis along side the economic one we face.

So plan on chaos for next year and beyond with a weak, illegal president. The Republican party leadership thinks they have laid the foundation for the future of the GOP. But the real bosses, the international bankers, know they are right on schedule to divide and finally break up America into smaller, more manageable pieces. Cuban exiles should have been able to recognize these things but evidently they have learned nothing from the Castro experience.”

2. American conservative race V. Canadian conservative race

In another comparison, canworldjon, compares the tactics used in Canada’s Conservative Party presidential campaign versus that of America’s Republican Party.

“The Canadian election is now done, but for many observers, the political strategies of the different parties remain raw in our minds. The Conservative tact of defining Liberal leader Stephane Dion as too “weak” to be a leader, and their attack on his proposed Green Shift plan as a “tax grab” was by all measures successful. So much so, that Dion cited the Conservative misinformation campaign as a key reason for his decision to resign as Liberal leader.

I want to focus, in particular, on Conservative Leader Stephen Harper’s attacks on Dion’s Green Shift proposal– a policy, put in (overly) simple terms, to shift tax burdens onto polluting behavior. Harper, however, redefined the Green Shift policy via “scare tactics” focusing on Dion’s supposed latent socialism. The Green Shift was not an environmental policy, declared Harper, but a “hidden agenda” to tax everything in the country. In fact, Harper consistently stumped that the Green Shift was a secret socialist-style redistribution program.”

He then throws in the U.S. comparisons:

“Interestingly, here in the United States, the McCain-Palin campaign for the 2008 presidency have recently settled on a line of attack ominously similar to Harper’s. After toying with several different “scare” attacks over the last few weeks — including VP candidate Sarah Palin’s base assertion that Senator Obama has a history of “palling around with terrorists” — McCain and Palin have likewise focused on Obama’s supposed hidden socialism. Seizing on remarks Obama made to a voter now known as “Joe the Plumber”, that Obama, with is tax plan, wished to “spread the wealth around”, the GOP have declared Obama a closet socialist wanting to impose wealth “redistribution” on America.”

Canworldjon then writes that the same tactics are having different outcomes because of the American perception on the idealogy of socialism.

“Commonsense tells us that in Canada, a country with a greater affinity for socialized programs like universal healthcare, such scare tactics alluding to secretive socialist agendas would be less effective; conversely, such attacks should more effective in the United States, with its staunchly anti-socialist historical tendency. Ironically, however, the Republican attacks (unlike Harper’s election win) have been largely ineffective: the Obama-Biden campaign is widening its lead over the Republican ticket.

Is this one of those great inexplicable electoral ironies? Or perhaps evidence that certain communications strategies are ineffectual, given broader social, political or economic currents (such has concern among Americans that the Republican party has mismanaged the country’s finances)?”

3. According to the pundits…

The third fave is by Malaysian blogger Khoo Kay Peng, who writes about the American political pundits and their analysis of the election.

“Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. who is the president and CEO of the American Gaming Association and co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, predicts Obama's overwhelming victory. Yes, this is the commission which organises the presidential and vice-presidential debates. He has conducted 22 of them ever since. Another prominent personality, Governor James Blanchard (pic) who is a former chairman of the Democratic Governors Association and a decorated diplomat predicted a big win for Obama too.

According to Governor Blanchard, economy is the biggest single issue in this election. Not national security. Not Iraq. National security is a key strength of McCain. Average Americans are worried about jobs, lay-offs and keeping their homes. Hence, most of them are looking for who can best manage their economy.

Clearly, the financial meltdown in Wall Street is not favouring McCain. Naturally, most Americans are blaming Bush for lack of urgency to arrest the problem when Lehman Brothers went under.”

However, Peng adds that “Obamania” can still end.

“Obamania is really sweeping US like a wild fire. Can he be stopped? According to the speakers, yes. If there is an incident which threatens national security it may force American voters to rethink their choice. Apparently, the terrorists would prefer a hawkish president such as Bush to help keep them in business.

Can Obama make it? Or will McCain pip him from behind? Stay tuned!”

What are your thoughts on these three faves? Did the Republican Party give up before the race began? Is socialism really bad? And, does McCain still have a chance?

I am a Cuban American, which parlays into a belief that “that government governs best which governs least.” It also means I believe strongly in traditional values and in the ability of the individual to rise above his circumstances. In sum, I am a natural Republican.

It is in this context that I have always admired Colin Powell. As a Republican and a Hispanic, brought up in the bad old days of rampant discrimination, I saw Mr. Powell not only through the lens of his achievement, but also with the hope that his open party affiliation would serve to break the stranglehold of the patronizing culture of victimhood fostered by the Liberal Left, that he would serve to show that you can do it. “Entitlements” because you cannot take care of yourself tell you you can't. Powell gave the lie to that assertion. He also stood for my views, a bulwark against the extreme right wing of the party.

So what does he do yesterday? Against every value one would assume he had, he endorses Obama, one of the most liberal of Senators, a man who not only opposed the war Powell helped get us into, but who would have pulled us out in defeat. And his rationale? In addition to the usual Liberal contortions regarding Palin's lack of experience for number two while disregarding completely Obama's lack of experience for numero uno, he objects to the tenor of the campaign, the Ayers story. Memo: if the media had done its job, McCain would not have been put in the position of having to educate us about the educator. These associations would have been brought up during the primaries and McCain would probably be running against Hillary Clinton right now. When there is no record to judge, when the associations are so unsavory to most Americans, what can be more important than the character of the man? Perhaps it is all irrelevant, but that is a decision for the American people and not the American Media to make.

Most hurt by yesterday's actions was my measure of the man: “You dance with them that brung you.” That he would be deliriously happy to see an African American within striking distance of the presidency is understandable. I would be. It is an emotion, however, he should have experienced in the privacy of the voting booth. I am no fan of Rush Limbaugh, but he struck a chord with me. Powell owes much to the Republican party, no matter how contentious the relationship, and he should have acted accordingly. This last minute endorsement begs the question as to whether he ever believed in the political philosophy he espoused previously or whether it was just expediency. Frankly, my only hope this election is that his candidate has similarly used the left.

This endorsement is more about the Secretary than it is the candidate. I suspect he feels he was misled into the UN appearance that damaged his credibility. I think he would have been served by waiting for the judgment of history than trying to rehabilitate his image with the cultural elite. I am terribly saddened.