Why a German Wants to See Barack Obama in Office
Benedikt Früh
Issue date: 8/6/08 Section: Opinion
Editor's note: This article was written by a B-Section German exchange student prior to Senator Obama's campaign appearance in Flint.
As soon as I heard Barack Obama was coming to Flint, I realized that it would be a unique opportunity to experience some of the excitement going on during the run for the White House. I would have never thought about seeing the next possible American President, not on TV, but in real life when I first started my trip to the USA three months ago. During those three months I sometimes wondered about the, in my opinion, relatively low coverage on the Presidential candidates by the American networks and newspapers. You must know that I am a student from Germany currently enrolled in an exchange program and that the German press is following the different candidate´s campaigns with a lot of interest. That is why you hear something about the run for the White House almost every single day in Germany.
The election process in the United States is totally different from that in Germany. We do not have such big campaigns where the candidates travel the country and give speeches to big audiences. We do not have a pre-election and the amount of money spent by the different parties is much smaller. But in the end we also manage to vote for a new chancellor.
Perhaps Germany´s interest in the US election has something to do with Germany´s recent history in which the US played a significant role, or perhaps it is due to the American foreign policy of the last eight years which started quite a few controversial discussions about Germany´s relations towards the US.
Another reason for the big interest might be the candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, themselves. It is interesting to see two people belonging to minority groups in these positions run for the White House. In the last election in Germany the winner was also a woman, known as Angela Merkel. She is the first woman to be Germany´s chancellor. Therefore, on the one hand, it would be interesting to see two powerful ladies handle their countries and the relationship between them, if Hillary Clinton won the election. On the other hand it would be exciting to see an African American become the American President and how this would affect the country itself.
As soon as I heard Barack Obama was coming to Flint, I realized that it would be a unique opportunity to experience some of the excitement going on during the run for the White House. I would have never thought about seeing the next possible American President, not on TV, but in real life when I first started my trip to the USA three months ago. During those three months I sometimes wondered about the, in my opinion, relatively low coverage on the Presidential candidates by the American networks and newspapers. You must know that I am a student from Germany currently enrolled in an exchange program and that the German press is following the different candidate´s campaigns with a lot of interest. That is why you hear something about the run for the White House almost every single day in Germany.
The election process in the United States is totally different from that in Germany. We do not have such big campaigns where the candidates travel the country and give speeches to big audiences. We do not have a pre-election and the amount of money spent by the different parties is much smaller. But in the end we also manage to vote for a new chancellor.
Perhaps Germany´s interest in the US election has something to do with Germany´s recent history in which the US played a significant role, or perhaps it is due to the American foreign policy of the last eight years which started quite a few controversial discussions about Germany´s relations towards the US.
Another reason for the big interest might be the candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, themselves. It is interesting to see two people belonging to minority groups in these positions run for the White House. In the last election in Germany the winner was also a woman, known as Angela Merkel. She is the first woman to be Germany´s chancellor. Therefore, on the one hand, it would be interesting to see two powerful ladies handle their countries and the relationship between them, if Hillary Clinton won the election. On the other hand it would be exciting to see an African American become the American President and how this would affect the country itself.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Jon
posted 8/22/08 @ 9:37 AM EST
The candidate's race or gender has no bearing to me, and it shouldn't have any effect to other voters. Proclaiming Hillary or Barack to be great candidates, able to make amazing change, just because of their race or gender is similar to saying one car is better than the other because it is blue and not red. (Continued…)
Benedikt
posted 9/12/08 @ 2:16 PM EST
Hey Jon
I am sorry, but I did not mean to tell Americans whom to vote for. I just discovered the article and did not even know it was published. I have to say that the title of this article has been changed without my notice. (Continued…)
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