THE QUESTION

The U.S. starts to choose a president this week. If you could send the candidates one message, what would it be?


David Responds

Posted by David Ignatius and Lauren Keane on January 4, 2008 8:54 AM

FROM THE PANEL

Saul Singer is Editorial Page Editor and author of the weekly column “Interesting Times” for the Jerusalem Post. He is the author of Confronting Jihad: Israel's Struggle and the World After 9/11. Before moving to Israel from the Washington area in 1994, Mr. Singer served for ten years as an advisor on the personal and committee staffs of the United States Congress, including the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Senate Banking Committee, and Senator Connie Mack.

Dear Candidates: Talking to the World Is Not Enough

Talk was not enough to defeat apartheid in South Africa, Marcos in the Philippines, Somoza in Nicaragua, the Soviet Union, etc. The same is true regarding today's enemies of freedom.

Saul Singer Jerusalem, Israel | 38 COMMENTS
Jan 9, 2008 at 10:24 AM
Nikos Konstandaras is managing editor and a columnist of Kathimerini, the leading Greek morning daily. He is also the founding editor of Kathimerini’s English Edition, which is published as a supplement to The International Herald Tribune in Greece, Cyprus and Albania. He worked as a correspondent for The Associated Press from 1989 to 1997 before joining the Greek press and has reported from many countries in the region.

Dear Candidates: Your Country on the Brink

The new president will have to lead from the front now, like a great general, to persuade the rest of the world to follow. Preaching to the nations from splendid isolation will no longer do

Nikos Konstandaras Athens, Greece | 4 COMMENTS
Jan 9, 2008 at 9:45 AM
Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist. He was born in Jerusalem in 1955. Presently he is a visiting professor at Princeton University in the United States. Mr. Kuttab is the former director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University in Ramallah, Palestine and the founder of AmmanNet, the Arab world's first internet radio station. His personal web page is www.daoudkuttab.com

Dear Candidates: Equality For Us, Too

Dear Candidates: Give the world the same equality that America gives its citizens.

Daoud Kuttab Princeton, NJ | 36 COMMENTS
Jan 6, 2008 at 8:56 AM
Ibsen Martínez is a Venezuelan playwright and novelist. A former telenovela writer based in Caracas, he is now a freelance writer and regular contributor to a number of newspapers, magazines and websites in both Spanish and English. He writes a weekly column for the Caracas daily "Tal Cual." Spanish language newspapers such as Madrid's "El País" and "ABC" as well as Buenos Aires's "La Nación" run his articles on a regular basis. His essays on literary and political subjects have appeared in prestigious magazines such as "La Nouvelle Revue Françoise", Mexico's " Letras Libres", Washington's "Foreign Policy" and The Washington Post's "Outlook" magazine. He also writes a monthly column on Latin American economic issues for the Liberty Fund's website, "Econlib Library (www.econlib.org).

Dear Candidates: Lift the Cuban Embargo

Lifting the Cuban embargo would erase anti-Americanism and weaken Chavez.

Ibsen Martinez Venezuela | 11 COMMENTS
Jan 6, 2008 at 1:17 AM
Dr. Ali Ettefagh serves as a director of Highmore Global Corporation, an investment company in emerging markets of Eastern Europe, CIS, and the Middle East. He is the co-author of several books on trade conflict, resolution of international trade disputes, conflicts in letters of credit, trade-related banking transactions, sovereign debt, arbitration and dispute resolutions and publications specific to the oil and gas, communication, aviation and finance sectors. Dr. Ettefagh is a member of the executive committee and the board of directors of The Development Foundation, an advisor to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, and an advisor to a number of European companies. Dr. Ettefagh speaks Persian (Farsi), English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Turkish.

Dear Candidate: Keep God Out of Your Wars

Wanting to root out the world's 'evil villains' is for Hollywood, not for a world leader. Such desire is probably the only real enemy the next U.S. president will have.

Ali Ettefagh Tehran, Iran | 42 COMMENTS
Jan 5, 2008 at 10:02 AM
Miriam Leitao is a reporter and columnist for O Globo and Radio CBN in Brazil. She is also a commentator on Globo TV Network and runs her own blog, www.miriamleitao.com, hosted at Globo online at www.oglobo.com.br. She was awarded Columbia University’s Maria Moors Cabot Prize in 2005.

Dear Candidate: Latin America Isn’t One Country

Chavez is not the region’s leading actor; Cuba is no more than a tiny Caribbean island close to Miami. We are so much more than you think we are.

Miriam Leitao Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 148 COMMENTS
Jan 4, 2008 at 1:44 PM
Originally from Pakistan, Anwer Sher is based in Dubai and writes for Gulf News, Khaleej Times and Emirates Today. His varied career experience includes banking, consulting, and real estate development. He has a Masters degree in International Relations.

Dear Candidates: Equal Attention to the World’s Problems

Condemn Israeli aggression with the same vigor that America condemns Palestinian suicide bombers.

Anwer Sher Dubai, UAE | 34 COMMENTS
Jan 4, 2008 at 1:16 PM
Leon Krauze is a Mexican blogger and a founder of letraslibres.com.

Dear Candidates: Visit Ellis Island

The nativist and xenophobic tone that has transformed the immigration issue into borderline racism forgets the way America was forged.

Leon Krauze Mexico | 79 COMMENTS
Jan 4, 2008 at 10:41 AM
Bashir Goth is a veteran journalist, freelance writer, the first Somali blogger and editor of a leading news website. He is also a regular contributor to major Middle Eastern and African newspapers and online journals.

Dear Candidates: Lead, Don't Loot

America is at its best when it sends its corporate power and freedom culture out into the world. Force is the choice of the desperate.

Bashir Goth Somalia/UAE | 32 COMMENTS
Jan 4, 2008 at 10:40 AM
Ignacio Gil Vázquez is the managing editor of Spain’s second largest circulation newspaper, El Mundo. He previously served as foreign correspondent in France and as Culture section editor. He has covered wide-ranging events throughout his career, including the Basque conflict, Catalan politics, Francois Mitterrand’s final years as president of France, his successor Jacques Chirac’s election, and the death of Princess Diana.

Dear Candidates: You're Our Leader, Too

We citizens of the rest of the world fear American leaders held hostage by frozen ideology.

Ignacio Gil Vázquez Madrid, Spain | 4 COMMENTS
Jan 4, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Soli Ozel teaches at Istanbul Bilgi University's Department of International Relations and Political Science. He is a columnist for the national daily Sabah and is senior advisor to the chairman of theTurkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association. He is the editor of TUSIAD's magazine Private View and the editor of the Turkish edition of Foreign Policy a journal published by the Carnegie Endowment in the USA.

Dear Candidates: Earn the World's Consent

The U.S. can’t accomplish anything alone – and some humility wouldn’t hurt.

Soli Ozel Istanbul, Turkey | 21 COMMENTS
Jan 4, 2008 at 9:23 AM
Carlos Alberto Montaner is a Cuban-born writer, journalist, and former professor. He is one of the most influential and widely-read columnists in the Spanish-language media, syndicated in dozens of publications in Latin America, Spain and the United States. He is also vice president of the Liberal International, a London-based federation devoted to the defense of democratic values and the promotion of the market economy. He has written more than twenty books, including Journey to the Heart of Cuba; How and Why Communism Disappeared; Liberty, the Key to Prosperity; and the novels A Dog's World and 1898: The Plot. He is now based in Madrid, Spain.

Dear Candidates: Stand Up for Immigrants

Reject Lou Dobbs’ dangerous anti-immigration rhetoric.

Carlos Alberto Montaner Madrid, Spain | 1 COMMENTS
Jan 4, 2008 at 9:04 AM

READER RESPONSE

» Richard Sanders | Observations from abroad are interesting, but hardly relevant to how Americans should vote. First and foremost, we need a president who will define, ...
» Brad | Let's get real here. We are not talking about immigration, but ILLEGAL immigration. None of the people that came through Ellis Island came here illega...
» leap1 | Leon- As an American born of an immigrant mother, I too am sickened by the racism in the immigration debates. It's like the Republican candidates want...
MORE RESPONSE

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