The choice of Sarah Palin as the running mate for John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate, is hotly debated, more so after the governor of Alaska announced that her teenage daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. France's President Nicolas Sarkozy was in Syria for two days and was part of the four-way summit held in Damascus and attended by heads of Syria, Turkey and Qatar. Pakistan is going through its worse political and economic nightmare and an assassination attempt was made on its Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. These issues were contemplated, analysed and commented on. We present here excerpts of editorials from the regional and international press.
McCain's running mate
Senator John McCain surprised most Republican supporters by nominating a political novice and an unknown Sarah Palin as his running mate. He justified his choice by saying that Palin is young and is a role model.
In announcing Sarah Palin as his running mate, Arab News stated "the calculation is clearly that Palin's youth - she is 44 - will balance McCain's wealth of years - he turned 72 last Friday." It also commented on what role Palin would play in case something happens to McCain if at all he is elected to office. "But the stark truth is that were McCain to win the presidency and die in office, the most powerful country in the world would start to be run by an Alaskan housewife. Will voters take this risk or in the next 65 days will Palin be able to convince them that whatever her inexperience, she is guided by the strong principles that every American wants to lie at the heart of government in Washington, but knows all too well do not?"
The New York Times was critical of McCain's choice of Palin. "If John McCain wants voters to conclude, as he argues, that he has more independence and experience and better judgment than Barack Obama, he made a bad start by choosing Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska."
It also questioned McCain's management skills and remarked: "As far as we can tell, McCain and his aides did almost no due diligence before choosing Palin, raising serious questions about his management skills. The fact that Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant is irrelevant to her candidacy. There are, however, very serious questions about her political past and her ideology."
Sarkozy's visit
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is making all effort to end the isolation of Syria by the US and some European countries. He was in Damascus for two days to find a solution to some of the complex problems of the Middle East. The centrepiece of Sarkozy's visit was a four-way summit with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan, Qatar's Emir Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani and Syria's Bashar Al Assad.
Commenting on Sarkozy's visit, The Daily Star of Lebanon said: "It is no secret that several powers - large and small, indigenous and not - are anxious to create a new regional order and to increase their own respective statures within it. It is also plain that there will be no going back to the uneasy balance prevailing before the US-led overthrow of Iraq's Saddam Hussain in 2003. Less obvious is what kind of model has the best chance of ending the Middle East's perennial volatility - and how best to develop and build support for such a model when so many of the necessary players are at odds with one another and/or coping with precarious internal situations that have relegated long-range planning to the backburner."
Pakistan crisis
Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani escaped an attempt on his life when snipers fired at his vehicle. The political turmoil continues in the restive country and the divide between the two main parties, Pakistan Peoples' Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has widen further.
Dawn, a leading daily in Pakistan, stated that things positive and negative, even dangerous, are happening at the same time. "While the shocking news of a failed attack on the prime minister's motorcade stunned the nation on Wednesday, the political front continued to be turbulent."
