Politics at a distance

It is quite interesting watching the presidential campaign from the other side of the world. You might think that news would be difficult to come by but such is not the case. We watch the PBS Lehr Hour from 4:30 until 5:30 PM and there are other reports on regular TV news. The print media carries even more news. Even the Western Australian, which is the WA paper, carries quite a number of articles before and as many after the fact. They are intensely interested in the presidential race because what we do effects them regardless of the distance. We have problems in our banking system and they suffer problems though no fault of their own. We can hear and read excerpts of the campaign speeches from McCain, Palin, Obama, and Biden. They liked to examine what is new on the campaign trail. One early morning TV talk show on channel 7, much like the Today Show on NBC, had an email came in from a listener who thought that they were giving too much coverage to the election and the announcer than went on to explain at some length how important and momentous this election was. We are probably as well informed about the candidates here as we would be at home but without all the noise of the campaign. Something that we did not miss.

We know from our experience here four years ago and from our conversations with people in South Africa during the spring 2007, George W. Bush was not popular if not down right reviled in some cases. I can assure you that he has not gotten more popular during these four years! I have yet to meet a McCain supporter here. They are all for Obama. Many cannot understand why McCain would choose a candidate with as little experience as Palin to be the vice president. They see how complex the world is and that no one nation regardless how powerful can go it alone today so to potentially put in someone in with so little experience just confounds them.

After the elections, we received congratulations from all our co-workers here. They see the election as a step away from the type of policies of Bush and his ilk and toward people more open to collaboration. They also see it was a sign that we are finally loosing some of our racism. Maria, the Aboriginal owner along with her husband who take the students to Broome trip, called down especially to congratulate us on Obama's win. We saw that the leaders in Europe were very pleased with the win as reported on in the news. It has been very interesting and may be alarming how negative other people have been toward the U.S. because of our policies over the last eight years. Obama has his work cut out for him but at least he has their good will for now.

It will be a difficult time to deal with all the problems so Obama will need every one's help. I hope that people's patience will last more than a few months because some issues are not going be solved immediately regardless of who will be in office.

B.