A leading Spanish pundit, Gustavo Palomares, bets on Obama and finds Palin scary

“A Barack Obama victory would be better for Europe. Sarah Palin is a worrying prospect”. These two judgments have been expressed by one of the leading foreign affairs commentators in Spain. In a TV interview broadcast on Safe Democracy website (www.safe-democracy.org), Professor Gustavo Palomares, who teaches at the Diplomatic School of the Spanish Foreign Ministry and is a frequent contributor of El Pais, has not only predicted that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States, but also ,that he would bring “fresh air” in the international arena.

“He would be good news for America’s European allies, and for all the processes in which the U.S. has a role to play: the Middle East, Latin American integration, etc”, he said. Underlining that Obama would bring diplomatic “finesse” and downgrade the use of force Mr. Palomares has not hidden his anguish at the prospect of a Sarah Palin’s presidency. “Her conservatism and her inexperience make that possibility a very worrying proposition”.
Coming from a respected member of the Spanish and European (and Americanophile) Establishment this opinion demonstrates once more that John McCain made a terrible choice out of electoral opportunism and dropped his ambition to be seen as more responsible and more “presidential” than his Democratic rival.