USA: Voices without Votes watch the Debate

Voices without Votes, Americans vote, the world speaksYou may not be able to see Russia from your backyard, but if you tune into Global Voices’ U.S election website, Voices without Votes, you sure can learn a lot about what the whole world has to say about tonight's debate between the U.S. vice presidential candidates, Sarah Palin and Joe Biden.

The unpredictability of Republican candidate, Sarah Palin from Alaska, has heightened the global curiosity factor significantly.

Two posts on Voices without Votes offer a preview of what non-American and expat bloggers are saying on the eve of the debate. In “Debate Watch: What is Sarah Palin Getting Into?” Hoa Quach quotes world bloggers for and against the Republican candidate.

Israeli blogger, Sultan Knish says:

“Palin has suffered from hysterical overreactions on both sides. Hysterical hatred from liberals and hysterical adoration from conservatives and now a hysterical backlash from some conservatives. She has an interesting story, but she isn't superhuman, she can't fly or change the nation in 5 minutes. Like every Governor who wends his or her way to the White House, she'll need time to learn and adjust, but she has proven that she's capable of taking on big jobs, which frankly is more than Obama has proven.”

Meanwhile, also on Voices without Votes, Jillian York shares some links to bloggers talking about Democratic candidate Joe Biden in, “Debate Watch: What is Joe Biden Up Against?”.

Spanish-American blogger, Claudia, writing for PoliGazette, says:

At this point, the VP debate is creating the expectations of a monster truck rally. It will be watched purely for the spectacle, to see big cars errupt in flames. The narrative is basically set in stone that this VP debate exists to see if Biden can actually achieve putting his whole leg in his mouth and to see if Palin can actually achieve speaking for upwards of an hour without saying anything coherent.

In the last month, Voices without Votes aggregated more than 800 posts from bloggers around the world writing about the election.

Today, a New Zealand blogger on Lucire writes about Palin and “in defense of lipstick”. Margot the Marrakesh Mystic checks the Chinese astrology charts of both vice presidential candidates, and the blog England for Obama suggest that Democratic candidate Biden should go for an attack strategy in tonight's debate.

With only a few weeks to go before the election in November, the Voices without Votes bloggers are pulling together to spread the word about the website in the name of global dialogue.

Global Voices’ Morocco author, Jillian York invites readers to buy t-shirts and stickers. Lebanese author, Nash Suleiman has made this video (and this one) to advertise the website:

Join us on Facebook and Twitter (especially if you're going to be Tweeting the debate!), and visit the websites of our partners who are also covering the elections from as many different perspectives as possible.

2 comments

  • Bryant Arms

    Palin had all of the advantages going into this debate. The public has low expectations of her, so it was going to be easy to impress them. She also knew that neither the moderator or Biden could attack her. Biden would look like a bully picking on a vulnerable woman while the moderator would be accused of favoritism since she has published a relatively favorable book about Obama. The only thing Palin has needed to do was rehearse how to bring up a canned attack against Biden at every possible opportunity.

    Biden can only grin and bear it like a man being slapped by a girl.

    Oh, and did anyone else notice Palin’s butt? I couldn’t help noticing due to the frequent ‘backside’ views offered by the cameras. That was very considerate of the media.

  • Talking about sanctimoniousness,What about John mccain past assistion with the world anti-world communist league,a place for the gathering of extremists,racists,and anti-semites as report by paul Begala on meet the press on sunday how unctuousiness of them

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