Qatar residents give landslide win for Obama

By K T Chacko and Sarmad Qazi

IF Qatar residents were to cast their ballots to elect a new American president, Barack Obama stands to win by a landslide in today’s historic US election.

A cross section of the residents have overwhelmingly endorsed Barack Obama as the next US president with as many as 91 of the 116 people surveyed by Gulf Times saying that they would vote for the Democratic candidate if they got a chance.

Giving an array of reasons for their preference, most of those surveyed said they preferred Obama for his slogan of change which is expected to usher in a major US policy shift, both domestically and internationally.

A questionnaire containing five questions was distributed among the members of the public who hailed from the Americas to Australia. The questions were: 1. Who do you think will be elected as the next US president?, 2. If given a chance, who would you vote for?, 3. How have the running mates influenced the prospects of their respective presidential candidates?, 4. Do you think Sarah Palin is an asset or liability to John McCain? and 5. How would you rate the Bush presidency – excellent, good, bad or disastrous?

It seems the liking for Obama was in one way or the other heavily influenced by the dislike for outgoing president George W Bush, whose eight-year stint at the White House was rated as disastrous by a great majority of the respondents.

People went to the extent of calling him the worst president ever in US history and some saying they would term his rule as something that goes beyond the option of “disastrous”.

The Iraq fiasco and the current economic turmoil have taken a heavy toll on the prospects of the Republican candidate John McCain who many of the people said would continue with Bush’s policies, if elected to the White House.

A large majority of the people surveyed opined that Sarah Palin, the Republican Party’s vice-presidential candidate was a liability to McCain. “McCain made the wrong choice and it is really starting to backfire now,” one of them said.

The survey found 70 of the respondents assessing Palin as a liability to McCain.

On the other hand, Obama’s choice of Joe Biden as his running mate found wider acceptance among the Qatar residents. “Biden has not jeopardised Obama. Palin has been an absolute disaster for McCain. Extremely bad decision to choose her as a running mate – a perfect example of style but no substance”.

While 41 of those surveyed said Palin had a negative impact on McCain’s prospects, 55 expressed mixed opinions, with some saying the vice-presidential candidate did not matter much in the scheme of things. Some 38 people said Biden was an asset to Obama as he would prove to be a valuable vice-president who could also advise his boss on crucial policy matters.

A total of 95 of the 116 people believed Obama would make it to the White House in today’s election. They said America needed change and that was what exactly the Democratic candidate has promised to deliver, if elected.

The survey also found there were die-hard supporters of McCain who according to them was the most qualified to lead the US at this juncture. His impeccable record of military service and public life has come in for praise and special mention in the survey.

On the question of assessing Bush’s presidency, the respondents were almost unanimous that the incumbent president’s term had been nothing but disastrous or at least bad. While 68 of the respondents said it has been disastrous, 29 termed it as bad. There were 10 people who found Bush’s presidency to be good and three said it was excellent.