So with all the lying and everything else going on with are soon to be president who do you guys think going to win?

Democrat

It's really hard to say now. While McCain is presenting himself as the man who will continue policies that has proved to be absolute failure, which, in normal situations, should grant him not to win, the dead lock situation in the democratic party serves him very good.

It will be a good election season. It's already good now with the accusations flying here and there and the smear campaigns starting, but it will get even better in the next couple of months.

Dose not matter who wins,we will be the losers...

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It will be a good election season. It's already good now with the accusations flying here and there and the smear campaigns starting, but it will get even better in the next couple of months.

Lucky, how is the American presidential campaign being portrayed in the mainstream press in your part of the world? I mean, both in reporting and in editorial commentary?

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Originally posted by Jack White:

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It will be a good election season. It's already good now with the accusations flying here and there and the smear campaigns starting, but it will get even better in the next couple of months.

Lucky, how is the American presidential campaign being portrayed in the mainstream press in your part of the world? I mean, both in reporting and in editorial commentary?

Well, there is always a whole page, or a little less than a page in Al Ahram (biggest news paper in Egypt) dedicated to the campaign, specially after each primary elections. Things like Hillary's Bosnia lie, Obama's pastor fiasco are also reported and highlighted.

Several writers and political commentators also comment on the elections in their daily/weekly coloumns, the new editor-in-chief of Al Ahram has been specially very critical of the US in his daily article on the last page and his weekly one page article. Which makes me think he won't last long in his position since Mubarak will probably get orders to throw him off.

Also the elections are very well covered by the TV. Al Jazeera dedicates a lot of time for the elections on the elections day, in addition to the normal weekly "From Washington" program that is aired from Washington and focuses on political events taking place in the US.

The elections are even closely followed by the public here. Just today I was attending my cousin's wedding and a lot of the talk between my uncles was about McCain and Obama. You can guess that Obama is more popular among people here of course, though most know that it doesn't matter who is elected for it's a lose/lose situation for us.

Usually you'd find a lot more people talking about politics here than in the US. US politics affects our daily lives and thus it's a constant matter of debate.

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Originally posted by LuckyBreak:
though most know that it doesn't matter who is elected for it's a lose/lose situation for us.

You keep saying that but I don't know what you expect the United States to do for you? Should we cut off ties with Israel (the only democratic country in the region) and overthrow your government so the Muslim Brotherhood can take over? Trust me Lucky, you may not like the Mubarek regime, but the alternative is much worse.

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Originally posted by KKL:

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Originally posted by LuckyBreak:
though most know that it doesn't matter who is elected for it's a lose/lose situation for us.

You keep saying that but I don't know what you expect the United States to do for you? Should we cut off ties with Israel (the only democratic country in the region) and overthrow your government so the Muslim Brotherhood can take over? Trust me Lucky, you may not like the Mubarek regime, but the alternative is much worse.

Or you could be a fair unbiased party in the Israeli/Arab conflict.

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Originally posted by LuckyBreak:
Or you could be a fair unbiased party in the Israeli/Arab conflict.

I can understand your frustration with our policy. However, you have to understand our frustration. There has been numerous peace summits where a deal has been reached and Arab governments have refused to support the peace agreements. The Saudis refused to recognize Carter's peace deal. Arafat refused the 2000 Camp David peace deal at the last minute, which by the way, is the best and most fair deal the Palestinians will ever get.

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the new editor-in-chief of Al Ahram has been specially very critical of the US in his daily article on the last page and his weekly one page article. Which makes me think he won't last long in his position since Mubarak will probably get orders to throw him off.

Fascinating, Lucky ... thank you. Does Al Ahram have correspondents here in the U.S.? I'm unclear on who could order your president to dismiss a newspaper editor, though, given that Egypt is a secular democracy. Who would those orders to your president come from? Does the Egyptian president have the power to fire the editor of a major newspaper?

And since 2002, all the Arab nations have agreed and presented a land in return for peace initiative. Withdraw from all the lands occupied in 1967 and you get instant recognition and political relations from ALL Arab countries.

Israel never addressed the initiative, and continues occupying the territories it took in 1967, and continues expanding it's settlements in Palestinian land.

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Originally posted by LuckyBreak:
And since 2002, all the Arab nations have agreed and presented a land in return for peace initiative. Withdraw from all the lands occupied in 1967 and you get instant recognition and political relations from ALL Arab countries.

Why would the Israelis agree to this? This would allow Hamas to fully arm under state sponsorship and attack a indefensible peice of land controled by Israel. It is tantamount to suicide.

Look, we are obviously not going to agree on this and I don't really feel like debating the last 60 years of this conflict.

In closing, I would just like to point out that the Egypt receives about the same foreign aid from the US as Israel does. You can piss and moan about Mubarek all you want, but the fact remains that your quality of life is much better under his regime than a Islamic fundamentalist regime like the Muslim Brotherhood.

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Originally posted by Jack White:

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the new editor-in-chief of Al Ahram has been specially very critical of the US in his daily article on the last page and his weekly one page article. Which makes me think he won't last long in his position since Mubarak will probably get orders to throw him off.

Fascinating, Lucky ... thank you. Does Al Ahram have correspondents here in the U.S.? I'm unclear on who could order your president to dismiss a newspaper editor, though, given that Egypt is a secular democracy. Who would those orders to your president come from? Does the Egyptian president have the power to fire the editor of a major newspaper?

Yeah, Al Ahram has correspondents in the US, Al Jazeera has a whole network of offices in the US as well.

As for who would order the president....well, the American embassy.
It's not an official thing, but this is how things are run here. The embassy gives orders and the clown Mubarak obeys. He doesn't really has any other option. Saddam used to disobey and he ended on the gallows.

And Egypt is neither secular nor democratic, unfortunately. Egypt has been ruled by the same person since 1981, and while it was a really secular nation back in the 50's and 60's, today it is no longer such. President Sadat, who in my opinion was a lunatic dictator in his last years, allowed the return of religious influence to an extent that is unbearable. Today is even worse. Religion is not forced by the governement, but people just became extremely religious these days that it totally sucks. Just an example, back in the 50's you'd rarely find an woman covering her hair, today you'd rarely find a woman who isn't.

It's a really long story. The events that happened in Egypt in the 70's are really worth knowing. To cut a long story short, Sadat thought he could use religion for his benefit in many causes, but it ended backfiring on him and he got killed by religious extremists.

I recommend reading Mohamed Heikal's "Autumn of Fury". It provides an excellent account on an era in Egypt's history that has marked a whole new future, and to the worse I am afraid to say. You can find it on Amazon. I really recommend it.

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Originally posted by KKL:
Why would the Israelis agree to this? This would allow Hamas to fully arm under state sponsorship and attack a indefensible peice of land controled by Israel. It is tantamount to suicide.

Hamas will not exist then. They'd have no reason for existence in the first place.

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In closing, I would just like to point out that the Egypt receives about the same foreign aid from the US as Israel does. You can piss and moan about Mubarek all you want, but the fact remains that your quality of life is much better under his regime than a Islamic fundamentalist regime like the Muslim Brotherhood.

Yes, I would never like living under religious rule, but don't you think this contradicts the same basics of "democracy" the US is supposedly promoting in the region??

If there was democracy, people would chose, say, the Muslim Brotherhood, then most probably they will suck and then people won't elect them again.

I am actually very trouble by both of the Democrat choices as well as the Republican designated candidate. Of the three, I feel that only Clinton has any common sense, but she is annoying me with desperation tactics in the past couple of weeks. Obama's economic plans and ideas are not realistic. And McCain isn't someone who I would trust to run my lemonade stand.

So my favorite, Clinton, by default...but she's not going to be the candidate.

And so I'll likely hold my nose and end up voting for Obama. But it is not because I like much of what he is campaining on.

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Originally posted by Ron Sanders:
And so I'll likely hold my nose and end up voting for Obama. But it is not because I like much of what he is campaining on.

That's peculiar, seeing that I cannot decipher between the policies of the two Democratic candidates.

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Originally posted by KKL:

That's peculiar, seeing that I cannot decipher between the policies of the two Democratic candidates.

Even more peculiar is that I cannot really decipher between the policies of all three candidates.
McCain will return to the same old policies for which he has always advocated up until the time the republican base said he was too liberal.

On the other hand, he is the least likely candidate to raise my taxes, so everything else being equal, he gets my vote.

I hope it's McCain...I see him as the only one with enough reliable wisdom to make good decisions for Supreme Court nominees...

(How come this country doesn't elect old democrats or young republicans to the Presidency? this Bush being the exception...)

jag

A democrat will be in office, simply for the fact that Americans are tired of the republican rhetoric. However, that being said, I've not heard the dem's take on how to change things important to me. The economy comes to mind first. Like others have said, I think we'll be the losers again.