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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (17019)	4/10/2008 2:35:34 AM
From: Sr K	Respond to of 149317

Today's posts were the worst. About 200 for the day and only about 6-10 were interesting. And not one on Superdelegates.

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (17019)	4/10/2008 4:40:26 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 149317

Europe blue, Asia red By Roger Cohen Wednesday, April 9, 2008 JAKARTA Europe votes Democrat, but Asia tends Republican. That's the headline from the fastest-growing part of the world where, as throughout a shrinking globe, the U.S. election is arousing passionate interest. Many a Shanghai dumpling gets slurped to the accompaniment of chat about superdelegates. Eric John, the U.S. ambassador to Thailand, told me the campaign was "the best public diplomacy tool I've had in a long time." Democracy at work is riveting. In Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain, America has produced three remarkable candidates. It's not surprising that a recent BBC World Service global survey showed positive views of the United States increasing for the first time in years. The rise was to 35 percent from 31 percent a year earlier. Negative views fell to 47 percent from 52 percent. The shift is not seismic but shows the world is looking beyond the Bush administration. What it sees, however, is by no means uniform. Across Europe, the Democratic consensus is overwhelming. That's not surprising: Bush hatred is a blood sport. The values of the Republican Party on everything from the death penalty to the place of religion in society lie outside the European mainstream. Europe's America is blue-state America. The rest is a discomfiting blur of churches, cowboys and electric chairs. But in Asia, there's a different view. The three largest powers - China, India and Japan - have all had reasons to view Bush with favor and all have nagging fears about a Democratic administration. At a deeper level, they've felt comfortable enough with a United States playing power politics, while that strut-your-stuff style has appalled consensus-driven Europeans. I don't mean the Iraq invasion pleased Asians. It didn't. But China and India rising see the world more in terms of classic balance-of-power equations, driven by the might and self-interest of nations, than through the post-sovereign European prism of international institution-building and soft power. Already, China and India are jostling for dominance, not least in the Indian Ocean and Africa. The India-Africa summit meeting this week reflects the conviction in Delhi that China has had its way too long in Africa. This friction will sharpen as the two countries build their economic and military might. For Beijing and Delhi, American power projection is no mystery. European talk of being a "normative empire" leaves them snickering or wondering. On specifics, the big Asian powers have also felt more comfortable with Republican policy. In India, the general feeling is that the Republicans are more free-trade oriented, less likely to pile on single-issue objections over outsourcing or child labor, and more ready to take a bold pro-Indian strategic approach. The Bush administration's push for a nuclear deal with India, its backing for improved military ties, its refusal to meddle on Kashmir, and its simultaneous backing of intensified U.S. relations with India and Pakistan have earned respect in Delhi. The fear is that a Democratic president, pushed by protectionists or non-proliferation literalists, could reverse these achievements. I understand those concerns. Reinforcing a special American-Indian relationship should be a strategic priority of the next U.S. president. In China, there are acute fears of growing trade protectionism if Obama or Clinton wins. The Chinese authorities are also worried that a Democratic president will raise more forthright objections to human rights abuses in Tibet and elsewhere. While criticizing the Iraq invasion, China has been pleased by the way Baghdad bloodshed took the focus off Beijing. A Chinese historical bias is that dealing with Republicans is easier. The six-party talks on North Korea, which have brought uneven but significant progress, have cemented deepening Chinese-American diplomatic interaction under Bush. China does not want an America that turns inward. Nor does Japan, which has reacted to China's rise by reinforcing its strategic ties with the United States, and has been reassured by the Bush administration's unequivocal commitment to America's Asian military alliances. America-in-Asia remains a Japanese priority, ugly incidents at Okinawa notwithstanding. The Republicans have been reassuring on that strategic imperative. So Asia leans Republican, but I don't think it should fear the Democratic presidency I hope to see. In Asia, continuity should be a significant thread of an Obama or Clinton presidency. There are policies to be corrected - especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan - but much to preserve. Above all, the United States must remain the offsetting power in Asia essential to calming Japanese and others' concerns over China's rise; a force for free trade with a region ushering hundreds of millions of people from poverty; a strong ally to a democratic India that is the developing world's most persuasive counter-model to flawed Leninist-capitalism; and a tied-at-the-hip partner with China. ABC - anything but Clinton - was Bush's dumb foreign policy coming into the White House. If elected, a Democratic president must prove wiser on Asia, where ABB won't work. iht.com