IMPACT ON BARBADOS

US, region’s future ‘bound together’

US political editor John Mercurio speaking to the audience at the Errol Barrow Centre for the Creative Imagination

United States Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Mary Ourisman, thinks the future of the United States and the Caribbean are bound together, and "we cannot escape the fact that whatever happens in the United States impacts on the region."

Speaking before the start of a lecture Elections ’08 – An Insider’s Perspective, given by American journalist John Merciurio at the Errol Barrow Centre For Creative Imagination, the ambassador told the audience: "It is a very good idea that as friends and allies we take a very keen interest in the democratic process in our respective countries."

The lecture took place on Monday night.

She said people in the United States had followed recent general elections in Barbados "with great interest" and noted that President George Bush had invited Prime Minister David Thompson to the White House to reaffirm the friendship and co-operation between the two countries, shortly after he became Prime Minister.

Mercurio, editor of The Hotline, Washington’s premier daily online source on American politics, said this United States election campaign was "the most fascinating" in his lifetime, adding that in his view, neither Democrat candidate Barack Obama nor Republican John McCain "has sealed the deal."

Mercurio, regarded as one of Washington’s leading experts on campaigns, elections and American politics, said that a tone of negativity was now dominating the campaign, "a disappointing development" according to him.

"I do think though that the negativity, in watching both campaigns very closely, has been instigated by John McCain to a larger extent than Barack Obama," the United States journalist observed.

He noted that despite dominating fund-raising in the campaign, Obama was still "at this point struggling to convince voters that he is ready to be President, and that he has the experience that voters believe is necessary for the next Commander-in-Chief.

"I think to a large extent he is dealing with the question that every American voter is asking himself . . . whether or not the United States is ready to elect its first African American President."

On the other hand, the campaign expert pointed to John McCain’s recent message which projects his opponent as lacking the substance to become President, despite his current "global celebrity" status. Mercurio viewed this as "the most effective argument for McCain to make about Obama."

But he concluded, "whoever is elected will be under pressure to change the course of the country." (Barbados Nation)