PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd may meet president-elect Barack Obama in Washington
November 6, 2008 by happytopics.com
Filed under National News
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd may have some informal contact with US president-elect Barack Obama when he visits Washington next week, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says.
Mr Rudd, as one of the G20 leaders, will be taking part in discussions on the global financial crisis.
Australian Government officials are requesting time with Senator Obama to allow Mr Rudd to offer congratulations.
“There may be some informal contact between president-elect Obama and some of those (G20) leaders,” Mr Smith told Sky News.
“Americans … they’re very conscious of the transitional arrangements.
“And traditionally, whilst there is a transitional plan, the president-elect takes a pretty low profile.”
The Bush Administration was not a caretaker government between now and Senator Obama’s inauguration on January 20, Mr Smith said.
Given the role of both Senator Obama and Republican candidate John McCain in administration negotiations on the financial crisis there may be an earlier role for the president-elect, he said.
“It may well be that president-elect Obama’s transitional team has a much greater role in the on-going global financial crisis deliberations and possibly Senator Obama himself.
“But the tradition has been that the president-elect waits until inauguration day … before starting that fully-fledged contact with other nations’ leaders.”
Obama voters on the Coast celebrate
November 6, 2008 by happytopics.com
Filed under International News
It was a landslide.
That’s how 21-year-old University of the Sunshine Coast hospitality and tourism student Malcolm Campbell described Barack Obama’s stunning rout of Republican candidate John McCain in yesterday’s United States presidential election.
The Democratic Party candidate outpolled his opponent by more than two votes to one.
And while he acknowledges that one man can not on his own fix the economy, he hopes that in the short term at least, Obama will shift the world’s opinion of the United States.
“As an international student I get to hear how many people don’t like us. Hopefully he can change the world view.”
Phyliss Araneo, a University of the Sunshine Coast research fellow and associate lecturer in environmental science education, said it had been a brilliant result for America.
“The country needs leadership in the direction it feels it wants to go,’’ Ms Araneo said.
“We are concerned about the perception of the United States as a bully. Most people aren’t like that. They are warm, generous and open-hearted. Obama represents that. His acceptance speech was eloquent and showed him as a true leader.’’
Ms Araneo, who was commissioned to paint Bill Clinton and Al Gore for the 1992 Democrat New Jersey campaign, had hoped that Hiliary Clinton, who she has met and found to be an intelligent, engaging woman, would be standing in Obama’s shoes today. While that she is not is a disappointment, Araneo said Obama was “fabulous”.
Not so certain is Jocelyn Smith, who moved to Noosa four months ago after 30 years in the United States.
Her ballot papers arrived too late for her to vote.
It was one that John McCain sorely needed and would have got. “Obama is too green,’’ Ms Smith said.
