JYA
Q&A: Students Comment on Election 2008
Abby McIntyre in Paris. |
Gate: How
did you spend election night?
Abby McIntyre: We
tried to go to an "Obama Victory Party" hosted
by the Americans Abroad for Obama, but that failed. The line
was much too long—almost every American in Paris
was there—and the whole system was much too disorganized.
Then, two friends and I ventured via the night bus (it was
already after 1 a.m. at this point, so normal public transportation
was closed) to my friend Rachel's host family's apartment.
We snuggled up on the couch with tea and treats to watch
French television election coverage and stalk Internet projections.
French election coverage gave a whole new perspective to
things. We got the results just after 5 a.m. and we may have
been tired, but it was still so exciting. I traveled home
with rush hour traffic on the Metro around 7:30 a.m.
Gate: How
would you describe the interest in the presidential election
where you are?
AM: In
France, everyone is in love with Barack Obama. They find
him articulate, intelligent and elite—exactly what the
French are looking for in a politician. A recent poll shows
that more than 80 percent of the French would vote for Obama.
This isn't too surprising since France is considerably more
Left than us and would almost always vote for the Democrat.
But this time they were/are very excited about him. Whenever
people find out I am American, they always want to talk about
the elections. It’s been the case since I got here
in August but it's been even more true in the past few days.
Whether at the crêperie, grocery or a bar (where the
English spoken among us Americans has recently solicited
drunken shouts of "Obama" from others), the French
love to talk about the current state of American politics,
especially Obama. They
love him here. They are almost as excited as we are.
Gate: Did
you vote by absentee ballot? When did you send that in?
AM: Yes, I
voted by absentee ballot. I sent it in around the first week
of October, right after I received it in the mail. I was
so excited to be able to vote that I didn't want to miss
out!
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