Blue World

On this terribly unscientific but interesting website called iftheworldcouldvote.com, the author attempts to poll the entire world on which US presidential candidate they would vote for if they had the opportunity.

Rather than look at the US as a grid of red (McCain) and blue (Obama) states, why not look at the world as a grid of red and blue countries? If you vote on the website and look at the results, you'll see that the entire globe is mostly bright blue, with only a couple of countries approaching a purplish, not-nearly red color.

While I was traveling this year, it struck me how interested and knowledgeable international people were when it comes to US politics. I knew that we were influential in terms of culture (music and movies), products and branding (Nike, McDonald's, etc), and foreign policy with our over sized military. But I didn't know the extent to which the world seems to look at the US as an omnipotent force. They feel they have a real stake in how our country operates, and the next president is foremost on their radar at the moment. Isn't it a shame they can't vote too.

We saw first hand this summer how deep the US influence can be economically. When the US credit markets started to freeze and stock markets started to plummet, the effect was felt immediately all over the world. Would the US have been as affected if Great Britain were to slide a bit?

I don't really know.