The World Weighs In on the American Vote
LONDON — Officials estimate that as many as 120 million Americans will cast their votes for President Bush or Sen. John F. Kerry on Tuesday. But among the world's population, there must be many times that number who wish they could.
From dusty bazaars in Afghanistan to classrooms in Wales, the presidential campaign in America is being followed as closely as any local issue -- sometimes more closely -- in what is a testament to the power of the United States and the potent emotions sparked by Bush's global policies.
With so much at stake, world leaders have been less than circumspect about whom they want to win.
Iran's ayatollahs, for instance, openly say they want Bush reelected.
"We haven't seen anything good from the Democrats," said Hassan Rowhani, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, on state television, which is controlled by the Islamic Republic's hard-line faction.
"We should not forget that most sanctions and economic pressures were imposed on Iran during the time of Clinton. And we should not forget that during Bush's era
Bush also gets a thinly veiled nod from Russia's hard-line president, former KGB agent Vladimir V. Putin, who apparently has looked into the soul of his White House counterpart and seen someone who shares his desire to wipe out terrorists.
Putin told a news conference this month that "international terrorists want to inflict the maximum damage on Bush and prevent his second term in office."
Britain's left-leaning Guardian newspaper is another matter. Tongue partly in cheek, it asked readers to contact undecided voters in Clark County, Ohio -- the swing county that sits astride I-70 between Dayton and Columbus -- and urge them to vote for their favorite, clearly Kerry.
The editors were overwhelmed by the response. More than 14,000 people visited the Guardian website to get the address of an undecided voter in Springfield, Ohio, and environs.
"At first the letters came almost exclusively from Britain, but as word spread, our inbox began to look more and more like a U.N. telephone directory," wrote Ian Katz, the editor of the feature section that launched the letter-writing campaign.
However, amid indications that the letters from foreigners could be having an opposite effect -- alienating Buckeye voters from Kerry rather than boosting support for him -- the paper called off the campaign.
