Kerry reaches out to a world where support for Bush is ebbing away

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1166063,00.html

Shortly before Germany's chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, flew to Washington for talks with George Bush last month, a journalist asked if he was going to say goodbye to the president ahead of the US elections in November. Mr Schröder's adviser grinned broadly before composing his face into a frown. "I won't speculate on that," he said. Although Mr Schröder deliberately avoided the Democratic candidate, John Kerry, during his two-day trip to the US, there is little doubt that a Kerry victory would provoke rejoicing inside Germany's government, as it would in many other parts of Europe, as well as Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Hostility towards a second Bush term is generally assumed to be widespread throughout the world because of the Iraq war, the concept of pre-emptive strikes and bullying of small countries. On issues from the Kyoto agreement and the international criminal court to antipathy towards the UN, President Bush has alienated countries Washington would normally classify as allies.

Distress over Mr Bush's foreign policy is not confined to the world beyond the US. According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll yesterday, 57% of Americans want their next president to steer the country away from the course set by the current leader.

Asked how much support Mr Bush had worldwide, Dana Allin, senior fellow for transatlantic affairs at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: "Not a lot. There is a conventional wisdom about US elections for foreign policy: that the incumbent is always preferred because of relations and predictability. This is an election where that pattern is broken. There is a perception, for better or worse, that there has been a departure from the tradition of American foreign policy."

[NJCher]

1. images of a worldwide victory party

...crossed my mind as I read that article.


Cher

[sangh0]

3. I know I'll be partying

like it's 1999

[izzie]

2. Every one loved to see the bully get it back, if you recall.

Lets hope half this country wakes up.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

4. There's also that environmental policy of Bush's

or lack thereof to be concerned about.

[T_i_B]

5. In that case you might like this...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1155740,00.html

John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, beats George Bush hands down when it comes to the environment. Kerry's voting record during a 20-year Senate career has received an A+ rating from The League of Conservation Voters (LCV). He has led efforts to block oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, supports legislative action on climate change, and presents energy conservation and clean technologies as a key part of his campaign platform. He even met his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry at the 1992 Earth summit.

Bush, in contrast, has repealed several hundred laws and regulations protecting clean air, water, wilderness, national parks and wetlands, and walked away from the Kyoto agreement on climate change.

"John Kerry's unparalleled record on environmental issues has earned him a 96% lifetime rating from the LCV, says LCV president Deb Callahan. "He is the candidate to defeat Bush, who has compiled the worst environmental record in the history of our nation."

Kerry presses home this advantage, frequently touting his green voting record and chastising the president on the campaign trail as leading "the worst environmental administration I've ever seen". Where Bush presents the environment as a special interest concern that costs jobs, Kerry links his plan for a mandatory industry target of 20% renewable electricity generation by 2020 as a means to save energy while creating jobs and decreasing America's dependence on foreign oil.