by Vera von Kreutzbruck
- Germany -

Barack Obama cast a spell on Germany. Even weeks before his visit to Berlin on July 24th, he dominated the headlines and was the talk of the capital city. Then, after much anticipation, the 47-year-old US senator delivered an idyllic speech, conquering the hearts of most Germans.

• Berliners flocked to the Brandenburg gate to hear Barack Obama's only European speech. Photograph by Vera von Kreutzbruck. •

“He is an incredibly fascinating person,” journalist Peter Intelman, 47, told me at the rally. “I just spoke with a young woman and she said: when he says ‘yes, we can,’ I believe him. He radiates credibility and this is what is so fascinating about him. But I don’t know if he will be able to fulfill his promises.”

Another Obama enthusiast, Fanny, a 22-year-old French law student told me: “Most of the European countries are Democrats so we have more affinities with Obama than with McCain. Besides, I think he can change things. I’m sure that it will be better with him than how it was with Bush.”

by Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation
- USA -

Dear Senator Obama,

We write to congratulate you on the tremendous achievements of your campaign for the presidency of the United States.

Your candidacy has inspired a wave of political enthusiasm like nothing seen in this country for decades. In your speeches, you have sketched out a vision of a better future--in which the United States sheds its warlike stance around the globe and focuses on diplomacy abroad and greater equality and freedom for its citizens at home--that has thrilled voters across the political spectrum. Hundreds of thousands of young people have entered the political process for the first time, African-American voters have rallied behind you, and many of those alienated from politics-as-usual have been re-engaged.

You stand today at the head of a movement that believes deeply in the change you have claimed as the mantle of your campaign. The millions who attend your rallies, donate to your campaign and visit your website are a powerful testament to this new movement's energy and passion.

by Faye M. Anderson
- USA -

With only three primaries remaining, the Democratic presidential nomination battle is nearing the finish line. While Barack Obama has won a majority of pledged delegates, he is still short of the 2,026 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

• Presidential candidate Barack Obama. Photograph by jurvetson. •

The fact is, Obama racked up his insurmountable delegate lead before snippets of sermons by Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. exploded on Americans’ TV screens and computer monitors. While Obama has since severed ties with Wright, the political damage has been done.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

What kind of leader does tomorrow’s America need? And who among the presidential candidates is best suited to meet the challenges that the next leader of the world’s superpower will face? These are some of the questions American voters face as they are showered with political propaganda and a pumping, election-driven news flow where “experience” is weighed against “leadership for change.”

“What type of leader is needed depends entirely on the times,” says US anthropologist, psychoanalyst and leadership consultant Michael Maccoby, whose 35 years studying leadership have broken ground within the field. His recently published book, “The Leaders We Need and What Makes Us Follow,” finds him being frequently interviewed by American media about leadership styles, and which of the current candidates is best suited for the presidency.

by Eva Sohlman
- Sweden -

The hope for change is tremendous after nearly eight years of George W. Bush in the White House – both in America and around the world. But regardless of who becomes the next president, we are all in for a big disappointment cautions Strobe Talbott, director of Brookings Institution, one of America’s most influential and oldest think tanks. He warns that the expectations concerning what the US will be able to accomplish as an international actor are exaggerated.

“Never ever in American history has a new president in the White house faced foreign-policy challenges of this magnitude or of this complexity!” The slender and energetic 61-year-old Talbott sighs deeply and shakes his head as he talks about the challenges that lie ahead. At the time of the interview, which takes place in his open and inviting home in Washington, Talbott lights a fire in the living room to defy the chilly weather outside, eagerly assisted by his two hunting dogs.

by Nomi Prins
- USA -

Depending on the measure of ‘liberalness’ used to evaluate past voting records, there is next to no difference between Clinton and Obama. In fact, with all her emphasis on ‘experience’ and his on ‘change,’ their voting patterns are almost identical. Both follow the party line, 97.1% of the time for Clinton, 96.5% for Obama - which doesn’t particularly highlight unique experience nor change.

• Finding her voice, Clinton campaigns in Arizona. Photograph by Dugi Jenkins. •

So, does the mere rhetoric of change trump the reality of past behavior? And is unity amongst political views – ‘no red states or blue states, just the United States’ - really a philosophy that will provide the majority of Americans (not the middle class, but the non-wealthy class) a more secure domestic future? Will that philosophy be able to drive more legislation and assure that funds are spent on equalizing citizens? What is needed is to lower the cost and expand the availability of necessities like health care, education, gas and energy, a home that the banking system isn’t stealing, and financial stability from birth through retirement.

by Bia Assevero
- USA -

Are you bored yet?

Have you seen one talking head too many?

Does exit poll sound like a dirty word?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then fear not. You are very probably not alone. We are one year on from the launch of the party nomination campaigns. By the time the next President is elected in November 2008, we will have survived nearly two years of constant and intense political bombardment. In a country that is big on instant gratification and where attention spans can be shorter than one episode of American Idol, this is to put it mildly, a problem.

For as much as Republican and Democratic candidates have bandied about the word change - as if it was the latest “in” word, something a teenager might use in lieu of “whatever” or “as if” or “wicked” – the process itself is unchanged. The candidates’ policies and positions are forced to take a back seat because the elections process itself is flawed.

by Susan Lavine
- USA -

Quoting from a historic speech given by Robert F. Kennedy during his visit to South Africa in 1966 to show solidarity with Martin Luther King and South Africa’s struggle for civil rights, Barack Obama brought his campaign to American University in Washington, DC. As Obama eloquently calmed the crowd he recited the words, “It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”

by Katharine Daniels
Founder & Executive Editor, The WIP
- USA -

On Tuesday Hillary Clinton made a campaign stop in Salinas, California. Otherwise known as ‘the lettuce capital of the world’ or John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Salinas just happens to be the farm town I call home.

Nearly 3,000 of Senator Clinton’s supporters showed up at the Hartnell College gymnasium to hear her speak. She was greeted in true Salinas Valley fashion, with mariachis and shouts for Viva la Causa (“Long Live Our Cause"). Clinton’s campaign stop was pulled together in just twenty-four hours following an official endorsement by the United Farm Workers of America, the union co-founded by Dolores Huerta and César Chávez that today represents more than 27,000 farm workers.

by Roshi Pejhan
Community Outreach & Development, The WIP
- USA -

by Katharine Daniels
Executive Editor, The WIP
USA

On Monday afternoon Managing Editor Patricia Vásquez and I changed gears and filmed seven questions The WIP wants answered by the next President of The United States. Reporting to you from behind a camera is something I will certainly have to get used to, but nonetheless these powerful questions coming from Bahrain, Malawi, Argentina, Germany, Zimbabwe and the USA get to the heart of the US policies that matter most to the international community.

by Megan Tady
USA

If only “Find the Warhawk Dressed in Sheep’s Clothing,” were a children’s game. Unfortunately, it’s a real life scenario that US voters face as we weigh the options of the Democratic presidential candidates placed before us like limp split peas on a platter when we asked for carrots.

Most of the candidates are dressing for show, and when the party’s over, they slip into something more comfortable, which just happens to be a charging general’s uniform. After all, a politician is a politician is a politician.

The two main political parties in the US – the Democrats and the Republicans – are traditionally pitted against each other in the media with descriptors that evoke good cop versus bad cop scenarios or, in more poetic terms long in use, for some reason they are referred to with winged similes. The Republicans, who currently hold the US hostage with their White House presence, are most often characterized as “warhawks” for their zeal in pursuing war and violence, supposedly to both protect and further America’s “interests.” Democrats, on the other hand, are portrayed as “doves” for their commitment, at least theoretically, to non-aggressive, diplomatic strategies during confrontation.

by María Suárez Toro
Costa Rica/Puerto Rico

On the one hand, the Republicans currently have - due to Bush’s performance - the lowest level of popularity they have had in a long time. So much so that it would not be an exaggeration to think that a Republican candidate stands little chance in the 2008 elections. The image of Republicans in government is not popular.

by Constance Manika
- Zimbabwe -

“When elephants fight, it is the grass which suffers.” – African Proverb

When this program was launched, the Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr David Parirenyatwa, openly admitted that his government had no resources to expand. Rather, Zimbabwe was counting on the assistance of the international donor community to provide more people with the ARV treatment.

by Suad Hamada
Bahrain

by Rocío Ortega
Mexico

The concern is understandable and based on an undeniable reality. Mexico’s proximity to the United States accounts for the largest group of unauthorized immigrants in the United States.

by Vera von Kreutzbruck
Germany

by Pilirani Semu-Banda
Malawi

The American people provide over $35 million (USD) to Malawi every year in the form of development aid through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This money is used to promote rural economic development, foster governance, reinforce basic education and to improve the health of people in this poor nation.

by Katharine Daniels
Executive Editor, The WIP

Photo by Gailf548

Friday, I attended my first Panetta lecture entitled “The Role of the Press in Choosing a Candidate.” The ninety-minute lecture had two parts—a sixty minute conversation moderated by Leon Panetta and thirty minutes of questions from the audience. The guests were author and HDNet News Correspondent Dan Rather and Washington Post News Correspondent and author Bob Woodward. Leon Panetta opened, quoting Edward R. Murrow: “Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.”

by Katharine Daniels
Executive Editor, The WIP
USA

For The WIP’s first article of the 2008 United States election season, I am dedicating this piece to three of the underrepresented voices in American politics: Women, African Americans, and Latinos.

In the United States women make up half the population, nearly 42 million Latinos are residents, and it has been over 135 years since the Fifteenth Amendment gave African Americans the vote. Yet we still have never had a President from any minority group.

I sat among delegates and the press listening to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, and Denis Kucinich appeal for support. I was pleased to hear both a local and a global message from each candidate.

I wonder if such candidates can change politics through the introduction of a new perspective, a perspective that develops from the bottom-up versus the traditional top-down power structure we are so used to in the United States.

The WIP has invited each campaign to submit stories about their candidates introducing them to our readers worldwide.*