USA Elections 2008: Impact on Pakistan?

Adil Najam

Even though much of the U.S. and world media seems to have already decided who will win the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, the fact remains that the elections are determined by votes, not by polls.

Much can happen between now and Tuesday. Including the (re-)discovery that the opinion polling is not an exact science. I doubt if that will be the case, but part of me is now fed-up with the over-polling in this election.

That means that maybe we should do an ATP poll of our own :-)

As has been evidenced in other posts of this blog there are Pakistanis who strongly feel that a President Barack Obama will be be more dangerous for Pakistan than a President John McCain. There are also many who think the exact opposite. And as the question in the poll suggest there may also be those who feel that no matter who wins things will get worse or, maybe, will become better for Pakistan.

Without losing sight of the fact that Americans will, and should, elect the President they think is best for America, not for Pakistan – and not withstanding my own expressed view that Pakistani-Americans will also be voting this time on their own domestic policy concerns and not on Pakistan’s foreign policy preferences – one does wonder how a new administrtaion in Washington (now that there is already a new administration in Islamabad) might impact Pakistan.

So, please do tell us what you think. And why.