Zed, dont be so silly. Just because YOU like to score points all the time doesnt mean I do. I like reading Serscots opinions. He is interesting and intelligent. I dont really care about nailing Wayf or Obama. Why would I care about Obama for goodness sake? He is your president, not mine. You really can be unbearable at times, Zed.
I recognize this is a bit derailing but,
EDIT-Actually the last part turned into a massive derail because I tried to make it funny.
While I'm not really accusing YOU specifically of this, and this is relatively anecdotal, I think some foreigners, despite having less of a stake in US politics - and even no stake - still can get rather passionate about US politics, including the presidency and elections. My brother, who studied in Japan for a year and taught english there for a year, was actually approached by an elderly drunken Japanese man (I think at a bus stop) one evening and essentially questioned on the subject of why US elected Bush and why Bush had fucked up stuff so badly. I think my brother said the guy was not at all hostile towards my brother or vindictive, but he was perhaps upset.
And I feel like international students at my school, while generally maintaining pretty significant interest in the politics of their own nations, also had a fairly high level interest in ours during the 2008 elections, and from what they seemed to discuss in politics, I suspect they were rather interested in US politics in 2000/4. I DO recognize that this would be less surprising than a student coming to study in the States than it would be in someone who either never visits the states or only does so as a form of vacation/leisure.
Ok no more spinoff rant with litte-to-no evidence cited, but let me make a pointed response of marginal importance, evincing maximum anal tendencies (my favorite)
Why would I care about Obama for goodness sake? He is your president, not mine.
-I suspect the margin between the power any American poster at the watch, old enough to vote, committing voter fraud or not, probably has over the election of the US president and the power you or other non US citizen voter posters at the watch is, while certainly in our favor due to the vote, and our better ability to persuade other voters, only very slightly in our favor.
-Nations and governments are constructs; interest, loyalty, etc to nations and governments are not handed out by an angel to infants of various nations according to national boundaries, nor are they implanted by governments when you vacation in their borders. For my part, I am more interested - admittedly amateurishly so - in dead Chinese warlords, historians, etc than any living US politician (~fanciful, I know~)...probably more loyal to their probably fictionalized personalities too. And, I'm certainly not interested in Obama - I tried reading one of his books (pub'd pre-presidency) that was lying around the house and actually put it down about 50 pages in.
-While I certainly find the idea that US's head of state would be relatively irrelevant to other concerns for most or all countries besides US, and that (OK forgive me it is hard to actually conceptualize what I'm about to say)
people who live in countries besides US and are not citizens of US would not even really care about US and would mostly just pay attention to US current affairs as a source of entertainment and interest and would ultimately have a rather devil-may-care attitude about US even though we are so important WHY DONT YOU PAY ATTENTION TO US AND WATCH US!?
WEUS ARE THE LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD!!!
*panting, pale but with sweat streaming down his forehead, dashes out of the forum*
*returns 5 minutes later, a few buttons unbuttoned, tri-corner hat missing and hair ruffled messily, dabbing at his forehead with a "stars and stripes" handkerchief and humming "The Anacreontic Song" uncomfortably*
as I was saying, I do find those ideas (swallows) barely within the border of the nation of "conceivable" (which coincidentally has a surface area equal to US, the UK, and any territories colonized by the UK while US was a colony of the UK and any locations colonized/occupied with a reasonable measure of success by US since our independence). However, that is not to say that all such people who are utterly concerned with our government pass muster according to my excellent standards.
If those people are also ultimately rather unconcerned with their government, then that is fine. And if they support a platform or a politician that is relatively isolationist or laissez-faire, that is also fine. BUT, I suspect that a fair number of people who aren't US support platforms and politicians whom have at least a tertiary interest in US, in US people, and in US leader. In that sense,
If you're supporting a head of state or anyone with a role in foreign affairs in your country's government, and that person has any interest in non-US/US relations (US favorite kind of relations besides US/US relations!), then doesn't it make some sense that they might have some interest in US president and that it might be reasonable for you to take some interest in US president?
Yes, I recognize you don't have much control over who is myUS president, but I don't have much control over who is myUS president either (and, while this is really a separate subject, I am one of those dumb schmucks I was talking about earlier who is ultimately concerned in myUS government so that could be laid at my feet and the feet of others *shudders* like me).
(No I'm not shuddering at how they're like me I'm shuddering at their feet)