Quote Originally Posted by Ragoczy View Post
With all due respect, when it comes to electing who leads my country, I base my decision on who I think will do the best job without a lot of regard for any "frustrated helplessness" or "eye rolling" the rest of the world may choose to engage in.

And I'd hope that all Americans would make that choice based on what they believe is in the long-term best interest of the country, rather than than how "cool" the rest of the world thinks we are -- we're talking about the President of a nation of 300,000,000 people here, not President of the Senior Class ... "cool" shouldn't enter into it at all.
With all due respect back but it should matter. We live in a world so dependant on its interlinking framework of international law, contracts and organisations that whoever you vote for will effect you as much as many other people on this earth. Be it in terms of the environment, in terms of a chance to maybe someday creating a functioning UN or in terms of making this world a safe place to live in.

I should maybe have explained the choice of word 'cool' in this context - but before Bush I WAS in High School - so 'cool' was exactly what America was. It was 'in', 'hip' and a few other irrelevent terms. But there is a serious side to this because as someone already pointed out, there was a time where America had a lot more allies and a LOT more sympathy abroad. And you might say that it doesn't matter for a country of 300,000,000 people and by rule of the strongest it might not. Of course then you put yourself on the same moral basis as China.