Post by Jaga on Oct 29, 2008 17:42:00 GMT -7
The world’s attention will be focused on the United States next week as the country chooses its 44th president. Poland will be among the many nations watching to see how the Oval Office’s next occupant takes to the international stage, but skepticism among Poles is high as to whether either candidate would bring about any real change.
American presidential elections are never low-profile events, but the 2008 election has been rife with firsts and superlatives - first major African-American candidate, first major female candidate, most money raised and spent, and so on.
The election has particularly resonated with the international audience. There is immense interest in the race to succeed George W. Bush, whose policies have fostered resentment and indignation in many countries. Election watchers around the world have expressed hope that this election will herald a new era in American - and global - politics.
Poles have not gotten caught up in Obama-mania to the same degree as other European nations, but they have kept an eye on developments in the United States. The next US president’s approach to the issues of energy security and the missile shield program are of particular interest in Poland, as is the question of how he will handle an increasingly aggressive Russia.
Whoever the winner, however, experts warn against high expectations. Europeans cannot demand too much, they say, at a time when the United States is preoccupied with a domestic financial crisis.
The Polonia divided
The upcoming presidential election is certainly important for Poles living in the United States. The exact numbers are hard to pin down, but according to the 2000 US census, almost nine million Americans claimed to be of Polish descent, while over 667,000 people said Polish was the main language spoken at home.
How is the Polish-American community, also known as the "American Polonia," going to vote next week? According to Ewa Kern-Jêdrychowska, a reporter with New York’s Nowy Dziennik, the largest Polish daily published in the US, no official polls on Polish-American electoral preferences exist. But like American society as a whole, their sympathies seem to be more or less evenly split between the two candidates.
A poll that the newspaper conducted in June showed that owners of prospering businesses in New York tended to favor John McCain, while less affluent people and representatives of the intelligentsia almost unanimously named Barack Obama their favorite candidate. In general, Kern-Jêdrychowska said, a greater interest in politics seems apparent this year among Polish-Americans - a group which usually shows only a moderate involvement in political issues. "Much as there were periods in history when the Polonia voted as a group - for example at the time when Ronald Reagan confronted communism while supporting the Solidarity movement - there is no one particular issue, at the moment, that unites [the group] and causes it to vote in one particular way," said Kern-Jêdrychowska.
She added that, according to research by the Michigan-based Piast Institute, the Polonia tended to vote Democrat in past presidential elections, the exceptions being the presidential elections of 1956, 1972, 1984 and 2004, when the community helped elect Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.
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The election has particularly resonated with the international audience. There is immense interest in the race to succeed George W. Bush, whose policies have fostered resentment and indignation in many countries. Election watchers around the world have expressed hope that this election will herald a new era in American - and global - politics.
Poles have not gotten caught up in Obama-mania to the same degree as other European nations, but they have kept an eye on developments in the United States. The next US president’s approach to the issues of energy security and the missile shield program are of particular interest in Poland, as is the question of how he will handle an increasingly aggressive Russia.
Whoever the winner, however, experts warn against high expectations. Europeans cannot demand too much, they say, at a time when the United States is preoccupied with a domestic financial crisis.
The Polonia divided
The upcoming presidential election is certainly important for Poles living in the United States. The exact numbers are hard to pin down, but according to the 2000 US census, almost nine million Americans claimed to be of Polish descent, while over 667,000 people said Polish was the main language spoken at home.
How is the Polish-American community, also known as the "American Polonia," going to vote next week? According to Ewa Kern-Jêdrychowska, a reporter with New York’s Nowy Dziennik, the largest Polish daily published in the US, no official polls on Polish-American electoral preferences exist. But like American society as a whole, their sympathies seem to be more or less evenly split between the two candidates.
A poll that the newspaper conducted in June showed that owners of prospering businesses in New York tended to favor John McCain, while less affluent people and representatives of the intelligentsia almost unanimously named Barack Obama their favorite candidate. In general, Kern-Jêdrychowska said, a greater interest in politics seems apparent this year among Polish-Americans - a group which usually shows only a moderate involvement in political issues. "Much as there were periods in history when the Polonia voted as a group - for example at the time when Ronald Reagan confronted communism while supporting the Solidarity movement - there is no one particular issue, at the moment, that unites [the group] and causes it to vote in one particular way," said Kern-Jêdrychowska.
She added that, according to research by the Michigan-based Piast Institute, the Polonia tended to vote Democrat in past presidential elections, the exceptions being the presidential elections of 1956, 1972, 1984 and 2004, when the community helped elect Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.
American presidential elections are never low-profile events, but the 2008 election has been rife with firsts and superlatives - first major African-American candidate, first major female candidate, most money raised and spent, and so on.
The election has particularly resonated with the international audience. There is immense interest in the race to succeed George W. Bush, whose policies have fostered resentment and indignation in many countries. Election watchers around the world have expressed hope that this election will herald a new era in American - and global - politics.
Poles have not gotten caught up in Obama-mania to the same degree as other European nations, but they have kept an eye on developments in the United States. The next US president’s approach to the issues of energy security and the missile shield program are of particular interest in Poland, as is the question of how he will handle an increasingly aggressive Russia.
Whoever the winner, however, experts warn against high expectations. Europeans cannot demand too much, they say, at a time when the United States is preoccupied with a domestic financial crisis.
The Polonia divided
The upcoming presidential election is certainly important for Poles living in the United States. The exact numbers are hard to pin down, but according to the 2000 US census, almost nine million Americans claimed to be of Polish descent, while over 667,000 people said Polish was the main language spoken at home.
How is the Polish-American community, also known as the "American Polonia," going to vote next week? According to Ewa Kern-Jêdrychowska, a reporter with New York’s Nowy Dziennik, the largest Polish daily published in the US, no official polls on Polish-American electoral preferences exist. But like American society as a whole, their sympathies seem to be more or less evenly split between the two candidates.
A poll that the newspaper conducted in June showed that owners of prospering businesses in New York tended to favor John McCain, while less affluent people and representatives of the intelligentsia almost unanimously named Barack Obama their favorite candidate. In general, Kern-Jêdrychowska said, a greater interest in politics seems apparent this year among Polish-Americans - a group which usually shows only a moderate involvement in political issues. "Much as there were periods in history when the Polonia voted as a group - for example at the time when Ronald Reagan confronted communism while supporting the Solidarity movement - there is no one particular issue, at the moment, that unites [the group] and causes it to vote in one particular way," said Kern-Jêdrychowska.
She added that, according to research by the Michigan-based Piast Institute, the Polonia tended to vote Democrat in past presidential elections, the exceptions being the presidential elections of 1956, 1972, 1984 and 2004, when the community helped elect Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.
...
The election has particularly resonated with the international audience. There is immense interest in the race to succeed George W. Bush, whose policies have fostered resentment and indignation in many countries. Election watchers around the world have expressed hope that this election will herald a new era in American - and global - politics.
Poles have not gotten caught up in Obama-mania to the same degree as other European nations, but they have kept an eye on developments in the United States. The next US president’s approach to the issues of energy security and the missile shield program are of particular interest in Poland, as is the question of how he will handle an increasingly aggressive Russia.
Whoever the winner, however, experts warn against high expectations. Europeans cannot demand too much, they say, at a time when the United States is preoccupied with a domestic financial crisis.
The Polonia divided
The upcoming presidential election is certainly important for Poles living in the United States. The exact numbers are hard to pin down, but according to the 2000 US census, almost nine million Americans claimed to be of Polish descent, while over 667,000 people said Polish was the main language spoken at home.
How is the Polish-American community, also known as the "American Polonia," going to vote next week? According to Ewa Kern-Jêdrychowska, a reporter with New York’s Nowy Dziennik, the largest Polish daily published in the US, no official polls on Polish-American electoral preferences exist. But like American society as a whole, their sympathies seem to be more or less evenly split between the two candidates.
A poll that the newspaper conducted in June showed that owners of prospering businesses in New York tended to favor John McCain, while less affluent people and representatives of the intelligentsia almost unanimously named Barack Obama their favorite candidate. In general, Kern-Jêdrychowska said, a greater interest in politics seems apparent this year among Polish-Americans - a group which usually shows only a moderate involvement in political issues. "Much as there were periods in history when the Polonia voted as a group - for example at the time when Ronald Reagan confronted communism while supporting the Solidarity movement - there is no one particular issue, at the moment, that unites [the group] and causes it to vote in one particular way," said Kern-Jêdrychowska.
She added that, according to research by the Michigan-based Piast Institute, the Polonia tended to vote Democrat in past presidential elections, the exceptions being the presidential elections of 1956, 1972, 1984 and 2004, when the community helped elect Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.