The democrat convention of Denver has closed with the acceptation of Barack Obama of his candidacy to fight against Mr. McCain. This, together with the nomination of Mr. McCain shortly, will clear everything and traces a path to the elections on November 4th.

From my point of view, the point of view of a humble Spanish that is living in Spain but also lived on USA, the elections on USA are key to the near future of USA and Spain, and, why not to say, the world. And there are two different positions: a young democrat against an old republican. A young perspective of the reality-that-could-be against an old vision of the-world-as-is; very simple but understandable.

I already expressed my opinion of Mr. Obama, but, reading and listening to him, I have a concern: is Mr. Obama the next ZP of USA? Mr. Obama’s speech, Mr. Obama ideology, is close to the leftists, similar to Mr. Zapatero’s ideology.

Mr. Obama is considering the foreign affairs in a similar way to Mr. Zapatero. With his willings to dialog with everyone (including Ahmadineyad, the president of Iran, and Cuban Raúl Castro), Mr. Obama is sending a clear message to the dictators: we can talk. But… about what? I have read an article (I do not remember the citation now) that shows the weaknesses of this position: if these regimes already know what to do, what will Obama dialog with them? This is also the position of Mr. Zapatero. His hunger for dialog carries him to talk with everyone including ETA terrorists, and to adopt upsetting (for the Spanish) positions as he showed with this discussion with Mr. Chávez, Venezuelan president. It was so upset that the Spanish King, Juan Carlos, had to confront Mr. Chávez with the so famous “why don’t you shut up?”. The image of Mr. Zaptero asking Mr. Chávez to talk (”Give me a little moment”) is a shame for the Spanish, and a symbol of Mr. Zapatero’s flimsiness. Will Mr. Obama do the same? Not sure, but seems to…

Other similarity between Mr. Obama and Mr. Zapatero is their love for the alternative energies. I do not blame this, but… will Mr. Obama, as is not doing Mr. Zapatero, who will pay the green energies he will promote on the next ten years? How Mr. Obama will balance this with the different oil companies and oilfields in the USA, and its workers? Mr. Zapatero is a clear promoter of the green energies, but he is not explaining the truth: those energies are much more expensive for the Spanish people that the oil and the gas, not to say the nuclear energy. Will Mr. Obama say so to the Americans?

There are other areas on which Mr. Obama has similarities with Mr. Zapatero. For instance, his lack of experience. He is almost a fresh senator, with no experience. Mr. Zapatero was not that, but he had no experience on managing nothing. How can Mr. Obama face the pressures of the different forces on the White House? Will Mr. Biden’s experience help him? I would say the same: no. Mr. Biden did not have any executive position on any of the States.

Nevertheless, there are differences: while Mr. Zapatero’s inclinations is against the right values of the society (integrity, responsibility, accountability, family), Mr. Obama is clearly positioned has been positioned in favour of this values. This is a sign, but the real thing is that Mr. Obama had no other choice. The American society (not as the Spanish) is driven by this values and the “American dream” is still alive on this society, taking into account the new Latinamerican emigrants.

The effects of this lack of experience together with the character of Mr. Zapatero is clear and devastative on Spain, pervasing on the Spanish society. Mr. Obama cannot do this because of the structure of the American society and values, but I keep saying the same: his ideology has some lacks. Mr. Obama can be the Zapatero of USA. Will the Americans allow this?

Technorati Tags: Obama, Zapatero, USA, Spain

This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.