Voices from Around the World:

Jordan | Oct. 17, 2008
“Arab Oil and Slurs” The Jordan Times
George Hishmeh laments the “anti-Arab bigotry” that has been raised during the American election. This vilification of Arabs, Hishmeh contends, “has not been fully repudiated by either McCain or Obama.” He sees the promise by both candidates to end the United States' dependence on “Middle Eastern oil” as another example of anti-Arab bias.

Israel | Oct. 16, 2008
“Rattling the Cage: To the Dustbin of History” The Jerusalem Post
Larry Derfner thinks the 2008 U.S. presidential election will be “a watershed year for America,” marking the demise of “[t]he radical right-wing ideology that's dominated the country since 1980.” Derfner doesn't know if Democratic candidate Barack Obama will have the resources to launch a 21 st -century “New Deal,” but ending Bush's “class war at home for the rich” and his “crusade in the Middle East” would be enough for him. “I don't know how good a president [Obama is] going to be,” Derfner concludes, “but I cannot see … how he can turn out worse than Dubya.”

Egypt | Oct. 16-22, 2008
“Is the World Ready for a ‘New' America?” Al-Ahram
Former Egyptian Parliamentarian Mona Makram Ebeid asks this question in her survey of the policies and politics driving the U.S. presidential campaign. “God forbid” Obama should lose the general election, she writes, finding Americans who describe him as “classy,” “cool,” and “glamorous.” Viewed from the Middle East, the election “signals an opportunity to fix what is wrong and build on what is right” about America. However, an Obama loss would represent “a symptom of [America's] historical decline.”

Lebanon | Oct. 18, 2008
“What an Obama Presidency Could Mean for the Rest of Us” The Daily Star
This paper is pleasantly surprised that Obama appears to be on the verge of winning the presidential election. The very fact of his election, the paper editorializes, “has the potential to dramatically alter the political landscape in capitals further afield, including the Islamic Republic of Iran.” The paper holds out hope that a political sea change “could bring about a warming of Iranian-American relations that would promise greater security to both peoples and help ease tensions in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon.”

Lebanon | Oct. 4, 2008
“The Moose Hunter and the Mullahs” The Daily Star
Rami Khouri finds American democracy simultaneously “impressive, vibrant, [and] often stunning,” but also vulnerable to “the volatile and sometimes infantile emotional psyche of a bare majority of citizens.” He holds up Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as an example of “American democracy at its worst.” The Alaskan governor, “In one swift, serendipitous moment … was transformed from a moose hunter in Alaska to a global mullah hunter in a contest and a world about which she knows zero, as she reconfirms every time she opens her mouth.”

Canada | Oct. 20, 2008
“Waiting for the Obama Way in Canada? Not So Fast.” The Globe and Mail
Lawrence Martin finds it curious that while both Canada and the United States are experiencing shifts in their “political centers” they are to opposing ends. Canada's recent election of conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper sharply contrasts with the U.S. election where “Progressives are ready to claim the White House.” Martin thinks that the gap is a result of the countries' differing economies. “If today's financial crisis … spills over heavily into [Canada], we could see a serious impact on our political culture. The rightward shift in Canada could be interrupted. The Obama way could become our way.”

Australia | Oct. 20, 2008
“Now, for the Real America” The Age
Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser reviews both U.S. candidates by pivoting from America's global reputation in terms of foreign diplomacy. Republican candidate John McCain, he feels, would be “a repeat of President Bush” while Obama is in “the mould of postwar American presidents” who understood the value of knowing one's enemies. His vote clearly goes to Obama who he thinks will “relight the idealism and sense of purpose” that harkens back to an older, better America.

Germany | Oct. 17, 2008
“A Last Chance to Halt Obama's Climb” Speigel Online
Die Tageszeitung calls Sarah Palin's line about Barack Obama not seeing America like “you and me” “openly racist.” Over at the Süddeutsche Zeitung , the view is that Obama has kept his cool during the recent financial mayhem, while McCain has been jittery. “That impresses Americans.”

The Philippines | Oct. 17, 2008
“Passion for Reason: Mysteries of US Presidential Politics” Philippine Daily Inquirer
Columnist Raul Pangalangan suggests that American political instincts are quite similar to Philippine political instincts: Acceptance of Sarah Palin due to her good looks and scrappiness and despite her lack of knowledge. Additionally, McCain's war hero identity would have been a “sure vote-getter in Manila as well.”

China | Oct. 12, 2008
“U.S. Election Deja Vu” The China Post
Post staff writers remind readers that Taiwan's politicians aren't the only ones good at “smearing, fear mongering, character assassination, race-baiting and all sorts of negative tactics.” Just look to the U.S. presidential campaign in recent weeks.

Britain | Oct. 21, 2008
“Barack Obama: Why I Believe He Should Be the Next President” Daily Telegraph
Boris Johnson, mayor of London, thinks that catastrophe in Iraq and the fall of the economy have sullied the reputations of democracy and capitalism. And it is Obama, he writes, who offers “the hope of rejuvenating the greatest country on earth in the eyes of the rest of us.”