Foreign journalists flock to Denver
The nomination of Barack Obama isn’t just America’s story. More than 2,000 foreign journalists have flocked to Denver to cover the Democratic National Convention.
The reason for the foreign fascination? In part, it’s the drama of American democracy. “Japanese people are more interested in this election than in domestic elections,” said Fumitaka Susami, a political correspondent with the Japanese news agency Kyodo News, which sent a delegation of 23 staffers.
“The ruling party in Japan [has been] in power 50 years, so no power-changing in Japan,” he said, in halting English, referring to the Liberal Democratic Party.
Susami said the Japanese public was more enchanted with Hillary Clinton, the Democrat Obama defeated on his way to clinching the presidential nomination, than with the Illinois senator.
The "race factor is not familiar with Japanese people," he said, but the enthusiasm generated during the primaries over the possibility of the first woman U.S. president was “more understandable.”
In Brazil, said reporter Jose Meirelles Passos of the newspaper O Globo, there is great interest in Obama. "Brazil has a large black population, creating empathy,” said Passos, who has covered American politics for 21 years.
In addition, the election matters to Brazilian readers, he said, because "everything that happens here affects our country... it's a globalized world."
-- Kate Kraft
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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We needed the foreign press this year to make up for the hideous coverage that MSNBC provided.
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Posted by: Alessandro Machi | August 28, 2008 at 06:38 PM
OBAMA BIDEN is the right choice for not only America but for the world. I have travelled through Latin America just last week and in all five countries I visited I heard from common people praying we elect Barack Obama. No Way No how No Mc Cain. Mc Same did not support the GI Bill and as a veteran who has a son in iraq right now I wont forgive nor forget that fact. I want energy independance, I want health care for my family that we can depend on, I want our veterans taken care of, I want our planet taken care of therefore I will vote for Barack Obama!!
Posted by: Patrick Obrien | August 28, 2008 at 06:54 PM
All Foreign Journalists:
The real American style democracy is practiced behind closed doors between lobbyists and politicians. Denver police will probably arrest you if you show up with a camera.
What's televised is only lip services just so that Americans can think they have a democratic country.
Go home.
Posted by: PuWeiTa | August 28, 2008 at 06:59 PM
better suggestion: while you're there, why not go instead to cover the only convention open to anyone interested, the real, core republican convention, not the neocon-hijacked one, but the 'rally for the republic' organized by the leigitmate constitutional republican candidate for president, RON PAUL at the target center in minneapolis (august 31st - september 2nd) at the same time the neocon faux convention takes place at st. paul? that way, you might make a useful statement and contribution in support of basic civil rights, and freedom of speech, and perhaps even help the legitimate cause for liberty and peace, of the legitimate and qualified candidate. for the rEVOLution, after all, to be televised.
Posted by: dave | August 29, 2008 at 01:08 AM