Change is in the air and the endorsement game

Again I asked more Yemeni friends about their reactions to the Democratic and GOP primary elections in South Carolina and Florida. We were all excited for the wins achieved by Obama and McCain in South Carolina and also Hillary Clinton’s and McCain’s win in Florida.

My Yemeni fellows and I learned more lessons about democracy and democratic practices from the number one democratic school in the world. We learned that candidates who lose votes in certain states never related his/her loss to his/her competitors and witnessed a platform where fraud never exists or is even thought about.

It was also great to see real competition between a black man and a woman. We learned how race or gender were not obstacles for reaching the White House. It would be great to see Hillary Clinton as the first woman to become president for the first time in US history. It will be also amazing if Obama could be the first black president in the White House.

On the other side, we followed the campaigns of the GOP candidates and the competition between McCain, Romney, Giuliani, and Huckabee. We learned loads about democracy, campaigning, lobbying and endorsing through their campaigns.

We noticed how Giuliani reacted when he lost in several states and how he dropped out of the race and smartly decided to join McCain’s campaign. Such an act can never occur in a Third World country where a candidate that loses considers his competitors as enemies and responsible for his loss.

Some of my friends questioned the New York Times endorsement of Hillary Clinton before the South Carolina primary and said it was unfair and contradicted democratic values. After I explained to them the electoral system in the US, they understood but still were not convinced. Later they heard about the “change is in the air” endorsement speech given by Senator Ted Kennedy for Obama, and they started to appreciate the endorsement game.

While following up these great democratic events, I read an article on the NewsYemen website about a seminar reported on in the Yemen Times in Sana’a where the website said that a US diplomat briefed participants about the complicated US elections system. According to the same website, the US diplomat ruled out the possibility that George W. Bush obtained the presidency as a legacy from his father or that Hillary Clinton inherited the presidency from her husband, Bill. He said that, “We in the United States understand this issue differently.” News Yemen attributed the quote to the US diplomat.

We totally agree with his point. We fully understand that President Bush became leader of the United States through fair election processes.  We also admit that Hillary Clinton was elected as a senator and has been competing strongly to be the first female president of the United States. 

However, our point published in our issue last week entitled We can do it was about the United States as a democratic model for the globe. We challenged US voters regarding whether they can prevent the occurrence of father and son presidents or husband and wife presidents in the future.

Once more I say we should be prepared to see presidents of the Third World preparing their sons and wives to follow them as presidents. Could President Bush have been governor and then a candidate to win the presidential elections without the influence of his father and his political staff? 

If Hillary was not the wife of Bill Clinton, could she be nominated to be a senator and then the democratic candidate for the presidency? The whole world knew that following Bill’s departure from the White House, Hillary was prepared to be president, and now she has been competing to achieve that goal.

What astonished me is that according to the NewsYemen website, the US diplomat concluded his announcements by saying that it is time for the United States to have a female president.

I agree with him in respect to the experienced Hillary in that I wish she could be the first female president of the US. However, is it not time for the United States to have a first black president as well?

I wonder whether it was the right of a diplomat while serving in a foreign country to give an opinion or to endorse a certain candidate during primary elections.

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