Leadership and The US Presidential Election

As a non US citizen and a “foreign observer” I would like to expose my perspective on this presidential election.

I had the opportunity to watch on CNN the second presidential debate and what I learned from that debate was that Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama were trying to appeal the public with too much “emotional answers” rather than “practical measures” over the problems the US has to deal with. Of course, this is the opinion of a “foreign observer”. Certainly your point of view is different, but I wanted to share with you my point of view.

Almost every thought that crossed my mind throughout the debate was about Leadership. I think that a country like the USA needs Strong and Committed Leadership, in fact, is what any country needs. I really questioned myself: Are these candidates up to challenge? Only time will tell. No intention to be offensive, but hard cold realistic. Anyway, that’s not the question anymore. No matter who the president of the USA is going to be, he will have many, many challenges to face. And he will need to show great leadership qualities to cope with them.

My point is this: the world we’re living now is too interconnected to allow yourself not to keep an eye on what’s going on in your neighbour’s country. And even more if the economy of that country affects yours too. I don’t know much about economics or foreing exchange, but I do know that if the Dow Jones Index goes down, then our exportations go down too, the goods we produce get cheaper, and our country receives less money. So, the health of our neighbour is our health too.

Please don’t misunderstand me, but the impact a Leader of such a big country has in the world is too profound to be overlooked. I don’t know how well the US citizens understand this, more than in any other time in history the world is too interconnected that decisions people make in one place, will sooner than later affect other places as well.

The leaders of the world, have to make this clearer now more than ever. We’re no longer citizens of one country, but we’re citizens of the world.

Why is so important now? The financial crisis that the US and The World is facing, has a lot to do with the quality of Leadership we’ve had until now. The 21st century is demanding more high quality leadership than ever, the speed at which things move now, make leadership a too fast paced activity. And as such, it’s a demanding and stressful activity. How to cope with that challenge?
What kind of issues 21st century leaders have to face?
Globalization? Global Warming? Energy crisis?

The next president of the USA will have to answer that, better yet, will have to do that. And by the way, not only USA faces those challenges, every single country in the world.

Good luck to next president of the U.S.A and good luck to us too.

YOUR CALL:
What do you think?
What kind of leaders you think we should have?
Do you think you’re current leaders are up to challenge?
How do you think you can contribute to live in a better country / world?