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A lipstick kiss is visible on the right cheek of President Barack Obama

Column Europeans saying Obama has to win? It makes me want to scream

It makes little difference to us who sits in the Oval Office – and we shouldn’t kid ourselves otherwise, says David Cronin.

IT WAS A moment to savour when a helicopter whisked George W Bush away from Washington in early 2009. On the ground beneath him, Barack and Michelle Obama waved gracefully. Millions of us  felt that some of the world’s problems would disappear into that serene sky.

We were wrong.

Over the past four years, Obama has extended the war against Afghanistan, started another one in Libya, and threatened to attack Iran. He has ordered drone strikes against Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He has increased military aid to Israel. He has kept Guantanamo Bay open. He has incarcerated Bradley Manning for spreading the truth about America’s crimes. He has supported a coup in Honduras and a dictatorship in Egypt. He has approved weapons sales to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. He has refused to act decisively against global warming or the power of Goldman Sachs.

Has he done anything positive? Apart from supporting the right to gay marriage and ushering in minor improvements to the health insurance system, I am struggling to think of examples. His withdrawal of troops from Iraq is hardly praiseworthy, considering the devastation inflicted on that country. And please don’t ask me to endorse the execution of Osama bin Laden. It is never excusable to kill an unarmed suspect, who could have been apprehended and put on trial.

Worse than Bush

Obama has in some respects been worse than his predecessor. Bush lied about Saddam’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction. But there was a general honesty to Bush’s aggression. Bush never purported to be anything other than a vulgar oil merchant, who referred to the captains of industry as “my base” and patently didn’t care about black folk left homeless in New Orleans. Obama had worked with deprived communities in Chicago and befriended the Palestinian intellectual Edward Said. Even if he was no radical, he still offered the prospect of change – or so we believed.

Every time I hear Europeans talk about how important it is that Obama gets re-elected, I want to scream. The question of whether the Democrats or the Republicans are in power matters to some Americans. Democrats tend to be marginally smarter and less inclined to say offensive things about rape victims than Republicans. Democrats do not tend to give as many tax breaks to the super-rich as Republicans do. In that sense, it might be preferable to have Obama running the show, instead of Mitt Romney.

On this side of the Atlantic – and in most of the world – it makes little difference who sits in the Oval Office. Both of the main candidates are beholden to corporate donors. Both think that the US may intervene in other nations’ affairs whenever it sees fit.  Both are believers in American supremacy, an ideology as toxic as any that deems one group of people to be more important than another.

Makes no difference

Whichever man wins, he will hear the same advice from the CIA and the State Department. The Pentagon will still see NATO as a vehicle for projecting US power. The International Monetary Fund – an institution largely controlled by the US – will continue to demand that Ireland scraps its minimum wage and Greece robs its pensioners.

The European Union will still be expected to act as a lapdog for an imperial leviathan. Belgium will continue to store some of America’s nuclear weapons. The US Air Force will still operate in Italy. Germany will retain the dubious honour of hosting the US command for Africa.

The granting of the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU doesn’t alter reality. Some of us thought that Barack Obama might behave slightly less belligerently after he picked up that same award.

Change does not come from the top. It comes from gatherings in town halls and city squares. It comes from the Occupy movement. It comes from the protests against the Keystone XL pipeline and the tar sands that neighbouring Canada hopes to use in accelerating climate change. It comes from Codepink and Students for Justice in Palestine. It comes from the nuns who fought the poverty-increasing budget championed by Paul Ryan. It comes from trade union activists in Wisconsin and Illinois.

Real change

Sure, you can quibble with the list I have just compiled. You can point to how those hardy souls who camped out near Wall Street  this time last year are now tucked up in warm beds. You can argue that DIY placards are worthless when confronted with the tasers and pepper spray of the police.

But dissent is seldom futile. Declassified papers show that Lyndon Johnson ruled out a nuclear strike on Vietnam because he was petrified of the public outrage it would engender. Why has Obama tried to keep reams of information about today’s wars secret? The only plausible explanation is that he is too cowardly to incur the wrath of his people.

Rather than trying to decide the outcome of the election on Facebook, the best thing us Europeans can do is to build alliances with the decent Americans struggling for real change. Regardless of what happens on polling day, America will be the world’s only superpower for some time to come. If you think handing the White House to the guy you like better makes the US any less dangerous, then please  reflect on something all of us should have been learned over the past four years. We were wrong.

David Cronin is an Irish journalist and political activist based in Brussels. He is the author of Europe’s Alliance With Israel: Aiding the Occupation (Pluto Press, 2011). His next book Corporate Europe: How Big Business sets Policies on Food, Climate and War will be published in June 2013. His website is www.dvcronin.blogspot.com

Read: Both White House campaigns: We’re winning>

Read: Why is Snoop Dogg voting for Obama and not Romney?>

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    Mute alphanautica
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    May 8th 2017, 7:45 AM

    Le Pen may have lost, but % support is increasing dramatically. Just like Sinn Fein, it is only a matter of time.

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    Mute Barry Somers
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    May 8th 2017, 7:51 AM

    @alphanautica: of course the partys are not alike, le pens party is full of racists, shes tried to change its image but the mask keeps slipping.

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    May 8th 2017, 7:55 AM

    @alphanautica:

    Its cyclical and they will lose support over time, look at UKIP in the local elections, completely destroyed

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    Mute alphanautica
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    May 8th 2017, 7:56 AM

    @Barry Somers: both parties do their best to distance themselves from their extreme xenophobic genesis, so they’re not that different. Thankfully the ‘Brits Out’ etc days are over.

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    Mute Willy Malone
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    May 8th 2017, 8:36 AM

    @alphanautica: Our elite congratulations all round , for a man who sees Ireland as a problem . Our corporate tax a major issue for his elitist Europe . Anything to keep elitist Europe in motion. Winds if change growing stronger as you say, only a matter of time ☺

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    Mute TehJurolan
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    May 8th 2017, 9:40 AM

    @Nick Allen: yes, but only after they had played a prominent part in achieving their goal of taking Britain out of the EU.

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    Mute Ryan Comiskey
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    May 8th 2017, 9:57 AM

    @alphanautica:
    Brexit 52-48: “Clear, decisive victory.”
    Trump 46-48: “The people have spoken.”
    Macron 66-34: “OMG France is so divided.”

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    Mute GameOverMan
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    May 8th 2017, 10:13 AM

    @Willy Malone: of course its only a matter of time. And when they’re in, it’ll be a matter of time before they’re out again. The systems not supposed to resolve anything… it has only to be maintained for maximum profit.

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    Mute Diarmuid
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    May 8th 2017, 10:31 AM

    @alphanautica: There are enough decent grown-ups in France and Ireland to keep know-nothing extremists out forever.

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    May 8th 2017, 12:59 PM

    @alphanautica: Before making any claims of FN support on the rise you should wait and see the results of the French Parliamentary Elections next month. In 1985 they reached a high watermark of 35 MP’s in the current Parliment they have 2 MP’s. If they can match or better their 1985 total then you could say they are on the rise. If they can’t, well it’s just a case of going nowhere.

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    Mute Patricia Cooney
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    May 8th 2017, 4:54 PM

    @Barry Somers: if their is no work and la pen wants to close borders you are racist.what next.

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    Mute Joshua Walsh
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    May 8th 2017, 7:59 AM

    Great to see the French people reject the hate that Le Pen spout.

    94
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    Mute cortisola
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    May 8th 2017, 11:43 AM

    @Joshua Walsh: There will be less and less support for her every year with growing Muslim population in France. She may never win.

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    May 8th 2017, 1:02 PM

    @cortisola: She has to survive the Parliamentary elections. If the FN don’t do better than her Father did in 85 with 35 seats the party will turn on her.

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    Mute
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    May 8th 2017, 8:19 AM

    God help France now with this political lightweight and apologist for Islamic terror in power.

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    Mute Diarmuid
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    May 8th 2017, 11:35 AM

    From an apologist for “republican” terror….

    Hypocrisy much?

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    May 8th 2017, 1:08 PM

    And what makes him a political lightweight? Coming out of nowhere and winning the Presidency from experienced and seasoned Politicians puts him right up in the Heavy Weight division as champion. And if you think he is a lightweight because of his lack of political experience then what does that make Trump a Bantamweight?

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    Mute George Orwell
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    May 8th 2017, 7:50 AM

    His wife gave him a well deserved pat on the head

    73
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    Mute The Thinker
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    May 8th 2017, 9:55 AM

    Glad to see France isn’t as easily led as the US and UK. There’s some hope yet

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    Mute Diarmuid
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    May 8th 2017, 10:33 AM

    Fabulous day for France and Europe.

    The fascist wave is dying across Europe, just like it did in 1945.

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    Mute cortisola
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    May 8th 2017, 11:46 AM

    @Diarmuid: You’re are like these lunatics dancing end of islamic terror after US killed Binladen in 2011. You’ll never get it.

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    Mute Lisa Dorothy
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    May 8th 2017, 3:14 PM

    @cortisola: Get what? That we have to think of it like it is us versus them? Because where has that attitude got us so far?

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    Mute No one
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    May 8th 2017, 7:33 AM

    I guess the French must be misogynist ??

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    May 8th 2017, 7:50 AM

    @No one: no they’re just less racist.

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    Mute GameOverMan
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    May 8th 2017, 10:20 AM

    @Deborah Behan: …speaking of racists theres Geert doing his best impression of every defeated cartoon villain ever… well done Geert, well done.

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    Mute David Harries
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    May 8th 2017, 8:59 AM

    I wounder could trump find France on a map

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    Mute Ó Connmhaigh
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    May 8th 2017, 11:42 AM

    @David Harries:
    First, he’d have to find a map

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    Mute Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh
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    May 8th 2017, 9:07 AM

    Donald trump may actually have prevented Le Pen grabbing power, People have discovered that voting is racist nutters actually offers no solutions either.

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    Mute Lisa Dorothy
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    May 8th 2017, 3:13 PM

    @Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh: And that is it in essence. Without an overhaul of the system nothing will significantly change no matter who you vote in. So people don’t fall for populist politicians like Trump – they will achieve as much or less than their establishment counterparts.

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    Mute Plus Prom
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    May 8th 2017, 10:32 AM

    I can’t believe all these so-called liberals celebrating the perpetuation of the patriarchy. I guess France wasn’t ready for a female leader. Sad. #ImWithHer

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    Mute Ernest Grinkas
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    May 8th 2017, 11:24 AM

    @Plus Prom: Agree. Complete sexism. Very disappointed by french sexism..

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    Mute Aaron O'Leary
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    May 8th 2017, 1:21 PM

    @Plus Prom: So the US was sexist to elect Trump?

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    Mute Lisa Dorothy
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    May 8th 2017, 3:15 PM

    @Aaron O’Leary: That’s what I was wondering.

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    Mute cortisola
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    May 8th 2017, 11:47 AM

    Most of these congrats should be sent to Merkel really.

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    Mute Yenreit
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    May 8th 2017, 12:16 PM

    @cortisola: Germany’s third invasion of France! Will they ever learn.

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    Mute cortisola
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    May 8th 2017, 1:47 PM

    @Yenreit: Soon all they need to learn will be Arabic and Quaran.

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    Mute Ibhar Mac Suibhne
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    May 8th 2017, 2:57 PM

    @cortisola: Hype up the anti-islam propaganda there sure!

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    Mute Philip Gerard
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    May 8th 2017, 4:37 PM

    @cortisola: Betterh than sending congrats to Putin, fascist tw@.

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    Mute Tosin Williams
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    May 8th 2017, 8:46 PM

    @cortisola: what language is quaran?

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    Mute Toon Army
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    May 8th 2017, 7:46 AM

    Interesting to see how Macron balances his overall centre right ideology with some watered down policies on education and EU reform. Suspect it will be the latter that takes a back seat but wish him all the best.

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    May 8th 2017, 8:33 AM

    @Toon Army:

    But more importantly, will Rafa be in charge come Aug. Well done yesterday

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    May 8th 2017, 9:54 AM

    Theresa may congratulated him through gritted teeth.

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    Mute Paul Coughlan
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    May 8th 2017, 9:01 AM

    We now have a 39 year old French President married to a 63 year old woman. Merkel would need to watch out. We should replace Enda with an Edna and we would be sure of a listening ear in France. ❤️❤️

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    Mute Larry Molloy
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    May 9th 2017, 11:48 AM

    The deep state are really nice people once you get to know them.

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    Mute Micheal S. O' Ceilleachair
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    May 8th 2017, 8:03 PM

    We will have five years of macronomics!!!!

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