What is your reaction to how the world views the United States?

Give me a break, Sara Palin has the lowest approval rate within the general population, whites, african american, women, men, young and old not because she is a woman but because lets call a spade a spade she is dumb. Do you really want to base your decision on experience that really doesn't exist: being a war hero, a pow is admirable but it doesn't give you the qualifications to lead. Look at when the economy broke, McCain who is suppose to be the experienced leader changed his mind on what to do, frankly he was not stable in his response. On the oher hand Barack Obama called upon the most intelligent minds and economists and told them I want to understand and what is the best solution without considering democratic or republican ideology. Sorry but I would rather have inexperienced but willing and open to listen, than experienced and stuborn thinking his way is the only way.

Do we really want a president that other countries would vote for? Isn't the US hated by most of the world, and therefore they would vote for a president that would cause us to continue sinking and failing? And what facts are they being told? The news in Europe is much different than our media coverage here. We are only shown what the liberal media wants us to see, and not the truth. The article "How the World Sees Us" says that in Africa "...people look at him and say, 'He's one of us'." While I understand this comment to a degree, isn't THAT racist? To vote for someone because he has the same skin color? It's easy to call the white man racist (although some are), but we never look at the other side, where the African or African American can be racist as well. Or even sexist in reference to Palin. The same article said "Obama runs strongest among young voters..." Many (not all) students are brainwashed and forced this opinion in school. In college, I was afraid to give my opinion or admit that I tend to lean republican. This is a huge problem in schools, with teachers forcing their political (and religious) opinions on students, who are afraid to speak up and get graded negatively. But who will do anything about it? I am a recent graduate, and let me tell you, it's RIDICULOUS. This is not about who is democrat or republican. It's about voting for someone who has experienced and is a proven leader. Most democrats I know are voting for McCain, because they don't trust Obama. I am voting McCain!

mariecopp, Actually if you really look into who started all this mess that got progressively worse, it was Ronald Regean. It is very narrow minded to blame the Democrats for the past 2 years. I agree they didn't stop the train crash, however George Bush had a republican congress for 6 of the 8 years and instead of stopping anything which they could of easily done at the time they chose to do nothing. Deregulation of the financial institutions is a Republican ideology, the Democrats want regulation. If you look at Canada for example that regulates their financial institutuions, their stock market is still down because of the huge trading between the 2 countries, but their financial institutions are very verry strong, there was no credit cruch because of the regulations. McCain voted on deregulation every chance he could and continues to say we don't need regulation, this proves to me he is not reliable when it comes to the economy. Barack Obama wants to put in sensible regulation and this is what is not only needed but required. I have looked at both plans in detail and like most important economists believe Barack Obama has the better plan. I have voted Obama.

frazit: It's hard to break through the 'against Bush' barrier that so many have - he is part of the problem, but not all of it. Former presidents and congress have contributed to where we are today -- George Bush didn't do it all by himself!! If you dig deep down, he's done some good with the bad. Obama doesn't have a reputation (for his short service) of reaching across the aisle, and with a Democratic congress, he won't need to. I feel it's totally unfair to lump McCain with Bush - yes, he voted with Bush on certain issues,but so did many Democrats and Obama himself. And also voted against and disagreed with him. The mantra is 'hell the past 8 years' but we didn't have this financial mess that is actually most of the Democratic Congress' mess. We are in a fix - on that we do agree - but I say take the risk and it will be disaster. Raising our taxes will send us into a depression - all finance people say so. Is it worth that risk ? To make things worse?

mariecopp, no risk no gain. You may be correct in thinking we don't really know him, but look at George W Bush, we all knew him, we knew his family, his policies and even thought he was one of us. Look at what he did to our country! McCain has broken with Bush only in a very few issuses. On the issue of the economy which is what is our number 1 issue he has the same exact policies, not 1 thing is different. I believe that although we don't really know Barack Obama, he has the intelligence, a steady and calm demeanor, the reflective and inclusive ideas that are needed in this day of global economy. Furthermore I believe that he will have to reach out to the republicans to do alot of what he wants to do and will have to govern from the centre if he wants to be re-elected in 2012. I say again better to go with some risk and have a possibility of a big change than STATUS QUO. NOTHING can be worse than what we had in the past 8 years.