Or lack of it… IS this an issue to US voters? I heard about it for the first time on the radio in the UK this morning, when she listed countries she had visited, and I was amazed. I’m not even a candidate to be dogcatcher, and I’ve visited at least 10 times as many countries as her. Personally, it does influence me heavily against electing someone to a position of global significance if I think they have no idea about foreign cultures. I know she is only a VP candidate, but it is a consideration. In Europe, we make a lot of jokes about Americans not knowing about the rest of the world, but I’m interested to know the extent to which UK voters see her lack of foreign experience as an issue.
The way a country the size, wealth and power of the US conducts it’s foreign relations has an enormous effect on the world, should US voters not expect candidates for the job to have significant experience in that area? From what I understand, she has visited Canada, and a US military base in Kuwait. If that’s your only experience of life outside the USA, that’s pretty warped surely?
No, my issues with her is that she is a strong evangelist, believes Jesus has ridden dinosaurs, is against abortion in every case, has tried to ban books from libraries, is already involved in a scandal the FBI is investigating, and prays on oil pipelines. She’s everything we don’t need, and if McCain dies (If elected, he will be the oldest First Term President), she’s in the White House.
The reason i mention the travel is I thought it might be an issue that swaying voters might be affected by. I can’t see many people being ‘on the fence’ about her religious views or views on gun ownership, but I can see that there might be some republican voters thinking that she really doesn’t have enough experience to be (potentially) president.
I don’t think that the lack of travel would be too much of an issue for most voters. There are a lot of Americans that I know that have never left the country…not even a quick trip into Canada or Mexico. I’m originally from Massachusetts, which is a relatively short drive to Canada…and I never made it up there. My wife is from another state very close to Canada, and she has never traveled out of the US either. For what it’s worth, I’ve only been out of the US once, and that was for two months in Venice, Italy during college.
people In Europe find the whole lack of travel in the US to be just weird. Is it because it’s expensive? or because the US is so big? I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone in the UK over 18 who hasn’t been to mainland Europe, and most people have been further afield than that.
I think it’s a combination of things. The US is big. We share land borders with only two other countries, and we have an embargo that’s lasted for 40+ years around one of our nearest neighbors by sea. Traveling to more than one other country is a big deal. It’s not like an overnight train trip can take you through six or seven different countries. Flights are expensive…and don’t get me started on the hassle that flying has become recently due to the security theater known as TSA.
On another level, different regions of the US are different enough from each other that they may as well be different countries. Massachusetts is one of the most liberal states in the nation, and Texas is one of the most conservative. Having spent time in both of these states (living in Massachusetts for many years and fairly frequent visits to Texas for travel) I can say that the cultures in these two states are very, very different. I’m living in Virginia now, and it’s very different than either of those states (everything here is somehow Civil War related, since Virginia was the home of the capital of the Confederacy). California could probably break up into at least two separate countries all on its own (Northern and Southern). There are plenty of different cultures within the US, and sometimes even within the same state.
what surprises me is that more people don’t travel from the states to the Caribbean. Costa Rica and St Lucia are the only places I’ve been around there, but they are both fantastic. Yes, Yosemite is fantastic too, but there’s a lot of appeal going somewhere with a different language customs and food :D.
After what I have heard, traveling to the neighbour state for the americans is like traveling to a different country for us, that may be way.
And because they really like their country.
well it obviously hasnt affected here popularity. Apparently this calendar is a top seller:
amazon.com/JudyPatrick-Photo … B001HWKAVE
Although it claims to be a 13 month calender. errr???
It all started on the 13th hour…of the 13th day…of the 13th month. We were there to discuss the Sarah Palin calendars the GOP had purchased.
Sambrookjm, enjoying the unseasonably warm Smarch weather