An Interesting Round Table

…on the News Hour last night. Alongside the Obamania platitudes, some surprising observations surfaced from the global participants :

…JUDY WOODRUFF: And in the Middle East, Hisham Melhem, he’s certainly — John McCain is certainly known as someone who supports strongly the Bush administration in the war.
HISHAM MELHEM: Absolutely. He’s a hawk on Iraq; he’s a hawk on Iran; he’s a hawk on the Arab-Israeli conflict; he’s a strong supporter of Israel. So, in that sense, he’s a known quantity. I mean, he’s known.
At the same time, those who are concerned in the Arab world about the rise of a more belligerent Iran, those who are concerned about the rise of the Islamist movement, some in Lebanon who are concerned about Syria’s continuing role, negative role in Lebanon, would like to see John McCain to keep the fire under the foot of the Iranians and the Islamists in the region.
So they are somewhat conflicted. And as far as Obama, some people are saying, well, there’s a perception that he may not be tough enough. And they wonder, will he have the steel and the depth and determination of Abe Lincoln or is he going to be sanctimonious like Jimmy Carter?
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Nayan Chanda, a final word about McCain and how he’s seen?
NAYAN CHANDA: McCain is, as our previous speakers said, I think McCain is a known character and he’s known as being very tough on security policy, so the Chinese ought to be concerned about McCain’s tough line on security policy.
But on the other hand, in India, McCain is viewed with favor, because he is known to have supported the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear agreement. And in India, there is actually concern, because, although Obama signed on to the legislation supporting the civil agreement, Obama has shown some ambivalence and concern about the impact of the civilian nuclear agreement on nonproliferation.
And so while Indians overall favor Obama, there is concern about Obama coming to power and perhaps not following through the civil agreement that India and the U.S. has signed.

Excluding the Euroweenies as a given…


… I would have to say the ‘balls’ category was Maverick’s, game, set, match.

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