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Global: Support for Obama grows

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Muslims for Obama.
Asian Americans for Obama.
Republicans for Obama.
The World for Obama.
And, the list of supporters for the idealistic presidential nominee goes on and on.

For one Muslim, the decision to vote for Obama this November was simple, as he writes in the Muslim Americans for Obama [1] blog:

“You ask! Why are Muslims supporting Obama?
In short he is the BEST candidate for the job in 2008.”

Asghar writes in the same blog that Muslims simply need to be heard and he believes Obama will take the time to listen.

“Obama has, on the other hand, argued for pulling out of Iraq (Muslims want this), diplomacy (Muslims want this), and unity (everyone wants this). Obama is far better suited to understanding the complexity of our now thoroughly globalized world than most people in Washington and Muslims Want a person who can see things from their perspective. More than anything Muslims need to be understood and here's a guy that just might be able to deliver.

I think we as the Muslim American community would be foolish to squander this opportunity to make our voices heard.”

For Asian American Christine, who lives in Seattle, the feeling of being understood is why she supports Obama, as she explains in the Asian Americans Pacific Islanders for Obama [2] blog.

“As an Asian American, I believe that Barack Obama speaks for me. I believe that he understands the problems that my family faces and I trust him to be my president.”

John Martin, a member of Republicans for Obama [3], writes about former U.S. President, Ronald Reagan.

“Each generation sees farther than the generation that preceded it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You're going to have opportunities beyond anything that we've ever known. -President Reagan commencement address, Notre Dame University, May 17, 1981

President Reagan had an undying hope in America's future. His hope was grounded in a faith in our institutions, in our traditional beliefs, and in the genius of those who created the founding documents on which our nation was built. Reagan's view was also the product of his life. From his time growing up in small town Illinois, he saw each generation work to provide for its children, and to help ensure that their children's opportunities were greater than their own.”

Martin then goes on to compare the former president to Obama and how he has inspired today’s young Americans.

“If Reagan were to give his commencement speech in 2008, he would find few believers. Today's generation knows that theirs is a nation in crisis. They know that the challenges they face are unlike those that any other generation of Americans have had to endure. They want a break from the past, and they want to begin to shape their future as they address the challenges they've inherited.
This generation has already shown what it is capable of. They've taken a relatively unknown Senator and have build a campaign unlike any other in recent memory. Today's under 40 crowd is responsible for taking our economy out of the doldrums of the early 1990's and into the 21st century, and they continue to lead the world with their innovation. While most of the nation sits at home in front of the TV, or shops at the mall, Americans as young as 18 fight our enemies on fronts throughout the world.

The risk in this election is not in handing the country over to our next generation of leaders, as some have suggested. The risk is in believing that the next generation will be unable to meet the challenges they face.”

Across the Atlantic, a UK blogger writes in the shared site The World Wants Obama [4], that Obama losing the election will, essentially, mean Americans having a lack of concern for the world.

“If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift. Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if McCain wins in November, that might well change. Suddenly Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves. For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start – a fresh start the world is yearning for. And the manner of that decision will matter, too. If it is deemed to have been about race – that Obama was rejected because of his colour – the world's verdict will be harsh. In that circumstance, Slate's Jacob Weisberg wrote recently, international opinion would conclude that “the United States had its day, but in the end couldn't put its own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race.”

Even if it's not ethnic prejudice, but some other aspect of the culture wars, that proves decisive, the point still holds. For America to make a decision as grave as this one – while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars – on the trivial basis that a hockey mom is likable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a lack of seriousness, a fleeing from reality, that does indeed suggest a nation in, to quote Weisberg, “historical decline”. Let's not forget, McCain's campaign manager boasts that this election is “not about the issues.” Of course I know that even to mention Obama's support around the world is to hurt him. Incredibly, that large Berlin crowd damaged Obama at home, branding him the “candidate of Europe” and making him seem less of a patriotic American. But what does that say about today's America, that the world's esteem is now unwanted? If Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us – and, make no mistake, we shall hear it.”