HEADLINE: Fear of a Palin Presidency Drives US Expats to Vote for Obama

[Bluebear]

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/10/26/palin_wideweb__470x315,0.jpg

Jim Sides, 55, a Californian living in Bonn, is a swing voter who cast his ballot for President George W. Bush in 2004. This time the one single factor driving him to the Democratic ticket is the possibility that the Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is a heartbeat away from the American presidency.

If John McCain is elected next Tuesday, the 72- year-old Republican senator from Arizona, who has battled skin cancer, would become the oldest US president in history.

“Let’s say McCain doesn’t make it health-wise -- then we’d wind up with Caribou Barbie in the White House,” Sides said, referring to the Alaskan governor’s bouffant hairdo and the political lightweight impression Palin has made on millions of television viewers.

Sides, a CEO of Meyer Sound Germany, a division of the US manufacturer of professional loudspeakers, said he had been even leaning towards McCain before Palin entered the Republican ticket.

“I had a very high regard for John McCain based on my knowledge of his record as senator. He was an honorable man, a war hero, but after he picked Palin, I felt he had betrayed his country,” he said. “I was in a state of pure shock. Leaving someone completely unqualified intellectually in a position to step into the Presidency was so irresponsible,” Sides continued.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3756020,00.html

[dkf]

1. This is a good point re: "Maverick"

Many expats like Nagel see McCain’s public outbursts and unpredictability that his Republican handlers call “maverick”, in a negative light. They say that McCain’s ‘shoot first, ask later’ fighter pilot mentality that might work on the battlefield, is unsuited for the US presidency, which requires a cool head.

[LynnTheDem]

5. Only it didn't work on the battlefield.

McCain cost US taxpayers $ billions in those planes he destroyed, and his "maverick" bullshit got him 5 years as a POW.

[earth mom]

2. I think there are many people who will be voting against Palin. nt

[malaise]

3. From one of our dailies

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20081102/lead/lead4.html
<snip>
US voting in Ja jumps 600%
THE AMERICAN Embassy in Jamaica collected more than 1,000 ballots, as United States citizens here voted in the much-anticipated presidential elections between Senators Democratic Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

The embassy recorded a 600 per cent increase in voting by citizens when compared to previous presidential elections, Steve Brault, chief of the American Citizens Service (ACS) unit, told The Sunday Gleaner on Friday.

The embassy estimates that 20,000 US citizens live in Jamaica. Of that number, 40 per cent are minors; about 12,000 are eligible to vote.

Some book flights out

Other US nationals, like Leo Williams, booked flights to the States to exercise his democratic right in the keenly contested presidential elections.

Williams, who was a collegemate of Obama's wife, Michelle, and her brother, Craig Robinson, at Princeton University in that country, said it is a historical and proud moment to vote in this election.

"My children would see this as something normal. However, there are many people whose grandparents saw a different life in America," he said, adding that he leaves the island today for the US.

[Jade Fox]

4. Thanks, malaise. That was interesting. nt

[MadMaddie]

6. Wow 600% increase!

[malaise]

10. It's non-stop Obama in Jamaica right now

and this has never happened before. One radio station just played the Palin prank tape and the host was screaming with laughter. A friend just promised to send a link to a calypso from Trinidad and Tobago about Palin.

[MadMaddie]

15. Awesome!!

[Cha]

7. And palin has never tried to appeal

to these swing voters, either, with her lies about Obama and herself.

Just throwing stupid, bloody red meat out to the whackjobs.

[meow2u3]

8. Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf killer

Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf killer
Big bad wolf killer,
big bad wolf killer
Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf killer
Every sane American!

[ThatsMyBarack]

9. EEWWW....

That is one of the WORST photos of Princess Palin I've ever seen! :puke:

Kick and Rec. #10, anyways (for Obama, of course)! :patriot:

[Bluebear]

12. She's so "hot" though!

:crazy:

[Bluebear]

13. She's so "hot" though!

:crazy:

[bdamomma]

11. as an ex pat who has already voted.

palin is not qualified to take the reins from grandpa mc cain. She is not a role model to women and especially not to me.

[ailsagirl]

14. LOUSY choice (for repugs) of a VP-- what was mclame thinking??

GOOD for us, obviously but I'm still scratching my head over it all.

:shrug:

[rebel with a cause]

16. My sister who has been for Obama from the beginning of this election.

partly because of my connection to him, but mostly because she said that she felt she could believe him. She convinced Hillary people who turned against Hillary in the primary to turn to Obama instead of going over to the dark side of mccain. But my sister is a Christian, moderately pro-life and not a big supporter of gay rights (not a big anti gay rights either). Anyway, she is terrified of palin, and does not want her anywhere near the WH, but she has friends that do. She does not want to argue with these friends, but I have been feeding her information covertly just in case she should feel the need to. And her friends are big anti-choice people.

One of the points I make to her is...palin would change the laws about choice for women...and she would not let women/girls who had been raped or victims of incest have access to an abortion or the morning after pill. I don't argue the pro-choice argument, only the fact that victims would not have rights. She already feels that palin is too dumb to be president, what I have to push is her dangerous fanatic positions that would change all of our lives. ;)

[Shanti Mama]

17. I live in an expat community and most of us are voting FOR Obama

The support for him is amazing. There are some diplomats supporting McC but the Obama movement is big. Palin is not a consideration because we would not vote for McC anyway.