African Immigrants’ doomsday worry over “hawkish” McCain

By Alex Kabba, African Abroad

Many African immigrants are worried that a Senator McCain win in November may herald bad news for the country and the economy. This fear, according to interviews with African immigrants by African Abroad-USA, became reinforced when the presidential race became dead even after McCain picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. The Palin pick, as indicated by polls, has energized the McCain campaign and has driven Senator Barack Obama into playing defense.

Franca (last name withheld), a Nigerian American, fears that a win by the Arizona senator may mean that America may go to war with Iran and diverting economic resources towards war.

“Presently, there is no money in the country. We cannot refinance our mortgages and many mortgage brokers have lost their jobs, as the economy has slowed under President G.W. Bush,” added Tayo.

Another African immigrant sipping pepper soup at the Governor’s Lodge on Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, told this newspaper, “I fear for this country. Republicans know how to win elections. They never talk of issues like the credit crunch, high unemployment and the new high cost of living in the United States. Instead, they talk of personality, abortion, and the ability to shoot a moose!”

Indeed, Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, told the media that this campaign will be about defining the personality of Senator Obama; to blunt the “change” mantra that has propelled the Obama insurgent candidacy, which won him the Democratic primaries. The McCain campaign has also began to tout itself as the “agent of change.” This has prompted Obama, who has cast the McCain campaign as running for a Bush third term, to remark that for McCain to be putting himself forward as the “agent for change” is “misleading.” Obama shot back that “if you put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig.”

Many African immigrants said that a McCain win could make them begin to rethink if they will have to relocate back to their country of origin.

“The man is too hawkish,” said Kwabena, a Ghanaian American. “I think his presidency will be a disaster for this country. Everything about him is about war. From the commentary: ‘We are all Georgians now’, to threatening Russia. This does not bode well for world peace.”

The war topic was the subject of special comment by Keith Olbermann, of MSNBC, in his show “Countdown.” Olbermann alleged that the Republican President George W. Bush and McCain have both jointly exploited the attack of 9/11 for political gain at the expense of 3,000 victims. “9/11 has become a ‘trademark’ with a trademark logo.

“Nine/eleven (*TM) has sustained a president who long ago should have been dismissed or impeached. It has kept him and his gang of financial and constitutional crooks in office without literally any visible means of support.”

’s investigation among immigrants shows that many believe the race is so close because Obama is black. Can you imagine if Obama was white? With this [Republican] party, which has been in power for the past eight years, that has so mismanaged the economy, this race would not be close.

It remains to be seen if Americans will make McCain president, in spite of the catastrophe of the last eight years under Bush.

Included by permission of African Abroad. Voices © 2008, IPA, all rights reserved.