A Global President

We live in an increasingly globalist society, yet the American populace seems to want a president who is wholly provincial. We want the president to ‘be ours’ and no one else’s. You cannot be (or maintain as) a super power if you can’t see past your own country. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think that McCain will be well-received internationally. How seriously can you take an aging cowboy who is in a near lock-step with the previous administration—an administration that has fostered so much ill-will internationally?

Clinton, as smart as she is, isn’t the trailblazer everyone wants or thinks her to be. In this country’s history, she is the only viable female presidential candidate—and she deserves to be recognized as such. However, in the international community, she’s not so special nor is she the first heavyweight female political figure on the global stage: Margaret Thatcher, Tansu Çiller, Angela Merkel, Benazir Bhutto, Megawati Sukarnoputri, Kim Campbell, and others share that distinction. And it sickens me to have to think of this election in terms of gender and race—because it only goes to show how backwards Americans are. People should be able to run for the highest office based on merit. More meritocracy is evidenced on American Idol than in our own political system. And it is the role of merit that makes Obama’s presidential run so frustrating.

As far as the international piece goes, he is more prepared than both Clinton and McCain (even though he saw combat in a different country) combined.
Barack is biracial and from his earliest days had to view the world through a transcultural lens. He grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, and lived and worked in Chicago; three cultural melting pots. You’re not getting much international flavor in Arkansas or Arizona. His being an attorney calls in to question his moral and ethical fortitude, but just based on his upbringing, he has been better prepared for engagement with the international community than either Clinton or McCain.

Folks want to argue that Clinton’s eight years in the White House has given her the training she needs to tackle international problems. A quick aside: I keep harping on the need for a president to be ready for international matters because I truly feel that local governments should be able to handle all domestic problems.
Just because Clinton is married to one of the greatest (yet ethically malleable) political minds of our time does not mean that she is ready. Being the President of the United States is not a meme you can catch. It takes hard work and you don’t learn it through osmosis. But her exposure to the presidential process, foreign ministers, international travel does give her a leg up on Obama, in theory.

What it will boil down to is who utilizes their skill-set in the best possible way. Can Clinton take those eight years and parlay them into an effective presidency? A presidency that will completely and totally eclipse her husband’s storied run? Or can Obama operate from his profoundly transcultural context and embrace the entire world with more than just fancy rhetoric and youth galvanization? And McCain…we don’t need Bush-lite. McCain is the Billy beer of this presidential race—amusing, yet awkward and really spooky under close scrutiny.

I haven’t made up my mind who I will be voting for this November (well…it won’t be McCain) but I will be taking a close look as to who can effectively engage the world in such a way that American will regain some of its international luster—a luster that has been thoroughly corroded under the Bush regime.