After sitting on it for a few weeks I have excercised my rights and voted for the next president of the United States. If you haven't figured it out by now, my demographic fits the profile for someone most likely to vote Barack Obama. For one, I'm a person of color, college educated, in the 18-34 age group, and have views that are considered liberal by American standards. Living in France, I've met liberals and by there standards I'd be considered a true conservative. After witnessing the collapse of the company, too many wars, and the evisceration of the "Bill of Rights" I can not support the current regime. Living in a different country I feel insulated by the current events in the US. Even with the power of digg and my local newspaper website I feel a little less interested in what goes on over "there" a little more each year. But, I have payed attention to the election as have a lot of my friends here. Even though Obama is considered a bit of an elitist in the US, for most Europeans he fits the bill of what a politician should be; highly educated, world travelled, moderate values, and above scandal.
From my view of things politicians are quite different here. They have gone to the top universities and grand ecoles, majored in Political Science or Business or some sort of management. After graduating they usually work within the ranks of the political party they hope to lead one day. And the resume history will look like the following: party clerk > civil servant > city mayor > senator > secretary or minister > president or prime minister. Now, I am basing this on what I have observered here (Sarkozy primarily) and this is the way it works in this part of the hemispere. While there is the occassional dark horse who challenges the incumbent parties to lead the nation (eastern europe or former soviet blocs) most proceed like the example I have shown.
On the other hand the US is more prone to be influenced by the personality of the candidate rather than the credentials of that candidate. Sarah Palin, for example, went to a university not considered elite, was a TV weather girl and beauty pageant contestant, and then entered the political arena later on. First working in the city council, becoming mayor, and finally becoming governor. She is being considered for the 2nd most powerful position in the world. And according to a lot of people they don't think she is ready for the job. Among Europeans Obama has a 90% approval primarily because he embodies the ideal politician. John McCain is considered too inflammatory and his years of being in the senate has built him a huge pile of scandal and unpopular positions that he can't hide from. His approval here is very low here but about even with Obama in the US.
Why is it? One of the big difference between here and there is the US views politicians as representing all of us. Even when we hold unpopular opinions. France,UK, Germany the politicians usually represent the best ideals of the people; eloquent, educated, thoughtful. Which one is correct will never truly be show. Here there is more latent racism and a Senate unwilling to acknowledge or do anything about it. There, there is more blatant racism and the government and media are much quicker to acknowledge it.
After weeks and weeks of waiting the new LCD finally arrived. It was worth the wait. I do wish the website on materiel.net reflected what was in stock. Now I've got a LG W2600HP-BF which has all the bells and whistles of the Dells and HPs of the same size. But it has the real advantage of being S-IPS instead of PVA, or crappy TN panels. Whats the difference you ask? Well go into your local big box and put the $1200 Lacie next to the $200 Acer. It's the difference between seeing the colors of what your monitor is trying to produce instead of seeing what the software is telling the monitor it should be producing. The 19-inch Samsung this monitor replaced looked really washed out and the colors were dead.
And 26-inches of monitor desktop is huge when the screen is only a few feet away from your eyes. I remember there was a time I had a TV smaller than this thing. It's being able to see everything at once. Deep down I wish I had bought two. Using the screen at work seems so boring compared to this baby. Like driving a Porsche on the weekends and coming into work on monday to putt around in a Fiesta.