By jfbarszcz
I imagine that most GW students would feel similarly when I say that right now, the foremost thing on my mind is Tuesday's presidential election. In the US, the presidential election is always a time of great excitement and dominates the national attention. Here in Prague, as one may expect, the media coverage is not quite so overwhelming, but it's still a very big topic (and of course, I continue to read American news outlets online, where the election remains the top story). Seeing that we exert enormous amounts of global influence in just about every sphere, I don't find this surprising in the least; US policy decisions have effects on the entire globe. Still, it's definitely pretty weird to go to a foreign country and have seemingly everyone there know an impressive amount about my country's politics, when I know so little about theirs, and I'm the one who's in their country! Then again, I guess the same could be said about people here (especially young people) knowing English, American movies, music, etc... in other words, I should be used to this kind of stuff by now.
I've heard that Obama is much more popular abroad than he is at home, and what I've observed here corroborates this. I don't think I've met a single European pulling for Romney (a friend of mine did meet and get into a heated debate with a possibly racist, definitely hammered young Pole in Krakow, though, but I was not there for that. Honestly I don't even know if he was a Romney supporter, just that he apparently referred to Obama mainly using slurs I will not repeat here). I guess I'll have to let my own biases show through here for a minute when I can say that I can hardly blame them; when a candidate is advocating the same sorts of economic policies that only worsened the European economic crisis, and whose foreign policy is characterized by Cold War-style realpolitik (this of course is the guy who actually said, in 2012, that Russia is our "number one geopolitical foe"), I'd be a little skeptical as a European, too. But, I digress; a GW-sponsored blog isn't really a place I should be soapboxing. Just remember that these opinions do not necessarily reflect those of The George Washington University or its employees, including the maintainers of this blog.
Anyway, while I wouldn't call myself a politics junkie (especially not by GW standards), I do like to stay informed about political issues (otherwise what kind of GW student would I be?), and I'm definitely excited to follow the election coverage. There's a viewing party at the embassy I might go to, but honestly I'll probably just stay in and watch it all here. Because even if the Czechs do take some interest in the US election, it isn't enough for my professor to reschedule my midterm on Wednesday morning. So I, for one, am pretty glad all the important swing states are on Eastern time, because it almost definitely means an early decision, and I'll almost definitely be able to go to bed at 3 AM (9 PM EST; CET is 6 hours ahead) and be decently rested for my exam.
Though depending on who wins, I might not be able to sleep very well... Let's hope for the best!