Americas
Viewpoints
Bush/Gore Contest
BELGRADE Politika (nationalist), Aug. 14: Both Bush and Gore have yet to prove that they are mature enough to lead the country. Bush used the Philadelphia convention to show that he is capable of ruling more than just Texas, while Gore must convincingly step out of Clinton’s shadow.…The choice of Joseph Lieberman will help Gore....As a Democratic Party senator, Lieberman was the first to publicly excoriate the president for his inadmissible behavior in the...Monica Lewinsky affair. However, Gore should take as a warning a recent survey that some 15 percent of possible supporters were not happy with the nomination of an Orthodox Jew for such a high position.
—Darko Ribnikar
MEXICO CITY La Jornada (leftist), Aug. 18: From a Latin American point of view, there is not much difference between...Bush and...Gore. Despite the propagandistic efforts of both to seduce Latino voters, the first is a typical Republican in his picturesque way of looking at our countries, and if the second wins, he will take office accompanied by a Democrat who, in terms of foreign policy, is indistinguishable from the most reactionary of Republicans.
AMMAN Al-Arab al-Youm (independent), Aug. 8/9: We hope that Al Gore will fail and will take Lieberman with him into oblivion. This does not mean that Republican candidate Bush Jr. and his own vice president are any better in their foreign policy toward the Arabs and the Palestinian cause. Yet, Gore’s success and in turn Lieberman’s own success would prepare the American public for a future step, namely, electing a Jewish president to the White House.
—Taher Udwan
JERUSALEM Jerusalem Post (conservative), Aug. 14: Presumably, neither candidate will declare his preferred solution to the Israel-Palestinian talks. They will stick to such time-honored phrases as the importance of Israel’s security, maintaining Israel’s strategic edge, encouraging Arab states to make peace with Israel, and moving the American embassy to Jerusalem after a peace treaty is signed.
MUNICH Süddeutsche Zeitung (centrist), Aug. 21: Today, the greatest problem in the United States is...legitimized political corruption. The shamelessness with which politicians accepted money from big business and lobbyists tried to buy access and influence in Philadelphia and Los Angeles runs counter to any serious reform efforts. In this respect, all the Bushes and Gores and Clintons are untrustworthy.
—Klaus Brill
