Fearful

That's Jonathan Freedland's message today. He's afraid that, "The Democrats are about to lose an election they should win". He fears for "blue-state America", for young Americans, and for African-Americans. But, should the Democrats lose the reaction he fears most is the reaction among non-Americans.

If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.

Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if McCain wins in November, that might well change. Suddenly Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves. For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is yearning for.

… Of course I know that even to mention Obama's support around the world is to hurt him. Incredibly, that large Berlin crowd damaged Obama at home, branding him the "candidate of Europe" and making him seem less of a patriotic American. But what does that say about today's America, that the world's esteem is now unwanted? If Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us - and, make no mistake, we shall hear it.

What a load of nonsense. Freedland believes that American voters should choose the candidate most desired by non-Americans otherwise America will be spurning "the world's esteem". So the voters should choose to vote not in their best interests, but in the interests of those in Germany or Peru or China?