I love it how Romanians realize the importance of public issues that surround them only when they are hit hard and heavy by them. There have been very few public debates, either on TV or in the blogs, about the US elections in Romania. This last week however, Hotnews (one of the most popular news portals in Romania) was packed with articles and more or less intelligent analyzes about the American elections. A very interesting debate - “The American Night” - is broadcast on TV as we speak, with influential Romanian opinion makers discussing the US elections. Before this nonetheless, few Romanian bloggers discussed this subject - a rather trivial indication of this is the absence of any category titles “elections”,”Obama” or anything similar in Zelist’s tag cloud (a Romanian version of Technorati).
I wonder whether this is because Romanians simply don’t care about international politics or because international politics doesn’t affect Romania. On a first glimpse, I’d tend to stick to the first version. However, over the last couple of months it became consistently more obvious to me that Obama’s stand on Europe will not change transatlantic relations in any way, hence won’t impact Romania. I discussed this topic a couple of months ago on Blogactiv, and later on with some American friends and we all concluded Obama won’t change in any fundamental way the current status quo. At least not as rapid as we’d like to see it changed.
In order to fundamentally change America’s position in the world, the President has to be backed by Congress, by a prosperous economy, by interest groups and, of course, by the American people (which is far from being as web 2.0 as we imagined :). Surely, he is charismatic, surely I would vote for him, surely I’d never prefer a Republican over a Democrat, but still it takes more than one American president to change the world. Also because the world has dramatically changed:
Whoever wins the US Presidency today will be facing the ultimate challenge: steering a self-destructing Western-based economic growth model through a painful transition towards a new global sustainability. This is a task far beyond any past Apollo project. (Willy de Baecker on Blogactiv)
Overall nonetheless, Go Obama! Anxiously waiting for the victory speech…
Here is the transcript of the much awaited acceptance speech The first few paragraphs are really moving but my personal favorite is the gracious thank for Mr. McCain’s congratulating call to Mr. Obama.
It was a great show!
I totally agree with you Daniel. It’s the mere tones in Obama’s voice that send shivers down my spine. And I am not American, I can hardly imagine what Americans feel like right now. I saw his speech twice today and once again I realized that the people behind this great men are simply brilliant. I also believe that his attitude towards McCain was a great sign of political elegance.
Vezi, tocmai acest fel de a susţine un om, un candidat, pe mine mă cutremură, fie că e în România, fie peste Ocean. Pur şi simplu, ceva nu mai îmi dă voie, în mine, să fiu fanatic susţinător al unei persoane, al unei fiinţe umane care se cosmetizează indecent pentru a câştiga voturile lubrice ale publicului. Doar la încoronarea unui Rege aş simţi ceva fior, poate. Dar să pun criticismul la o parte (apopos, este unul din principiile din motto), surprinzându-mă de unul singu uitând că Obama este mai mult un produs de marketing şi media decât oricare alt candidat-preşedinte american de până acum, m-ar dezonora în proprii ochi puţin. Aşa cum fosta năvală media despre B. Spears a făcut din afona asta o celebritate scumpă şi apoi o epavă (dar ăsta e alt subiect), tot aşa fu construit şi senzualul Obama. Or eu detest oamenii construiţi, îmi fac greaţă autodezvoltaţii, marketizaţii. Pentru că însăşi prezenţa lor apăsătoare pe toate ecranele şi afişele este o insultă la adresa inteligenţii puţinilor oameni care aleg gândind şi nu în timp ce au orgasm sau erecţie dinaintea unei charisme.
cristian, tocmai pentru ca inca mai mai bucur de spirit critic, si eu l-am luat pe obama ca pe ceea ce e. un lider foarte bun, insa un lider care a ajuns acolo unde este multumita unei campanii de marketing si de imagine extrem de bine orchestrata. cu toate acestea, sunt multi, multi factori de care obama trebuie sa tina cont pentru a putea produce macar o zecime din schimbarea promisa. si am spus asta. totusi, am ramas si eu miscata de felul in care obama a reusit sa miste masele, exact de acest joc al sau cu sentimentele. mai e ceva pana la proba contrarie ca sa putem afirma ca obama este o forma total lipsita de fond. iti inteleg suspiciunea vizavi de produsele marketate, si totusi ma intreb de ce nicaieri in lume, in ciuda sumelor investite in marketing, nu s-a putut produce un fenomen similar. poate pentru ca exista si un oarece miez al respectivului produs ajuns impachetat si frumos aranjat intr-o ultima instanta.