World Sees Vote As Bush Rebuke

Strong Democratic gains in the U.S. elections were seen around the world as a potent rejection of the war in Iraq and the beginning of the end of Republican George W. Bush's presidency.

The Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives did not spark widespread fears of government paralysis in Washington, but some expected increasing pressure on Bush to alter course in Iraq and other policies.

The shift in power was also seen as a signal in some capitals that it was time to prepare for an eventual Democratic-led government, while others foresaw a greater emphasis on trade policy and human rights.

In Asia, across the Middle East and in Europe, the results were seen by many as a painful — and well-deserved — blow that left Bush significantly weakened for his remaining two years in office.

"Although his term will not end within the next year, I think Bush is already turning into a lame duck," Yuzo Yamamoto, 60, the manager of a Tokyo business consulting firm, said on Wednesday as the results emerged.

Amid widespread dissatisfaction with Bush, Democrats won control of the House and challenged Republican dominance in the Senate in midterm elections Tuesday. The next presidential election will be in November 2008.

As in the U.S., outside observers saw the bloodshed in Iraq as the major driving force behind the growing popularity of the Democrats. Anti-war sentiment was strong among Muslim countries and others such as France that opposed the Iraq invasion.

CBS News State Department reporter Charles Wolfson said that a Democratic win in either the House or the Senate — or both — would weaken Mr. Bush's leadership, and foreign leaders would take note.

"The calculus of foreign leaders everywhere will be to see weakness if the Democrats prevail and they'll act accordingly," said Wolfson, adding that Mr. Bush's weakness could add to the difficulty surrounding various pending international issues and negotiations.

CBS News correspondent Cami McCormick reports that the United States' Ambassador to Iraq was quick to come out Wednesday and tell the Iraqi people the election results wouldn't change the U.S. government's goal of defeating the bloody insurgency in their own country.

"Zalmay Khalilzad also said that President Bush will work with both houses of Congress with a mission to succeed," McCormick said.

Ambassador Khalilzad's reassurance may have fallen on largely disinterested ears however, given the response of some regular Iraqis to the election results.

McCormick says many of the people she spoke with seemed far more concerned with the many problems facing their own communities, and considered the Democrat's victory more of a U.S. domestic issue, unlikely to affect the reality on the ground in Iraq.

Several Iraqis did express hopes that the shift in power in Washington would bring a timetable for the withdraw of U.S. troops, and others told the Associated Press that they were just happy to see Mr. Bush party take a hit.

"Voters have punished the Republicans. They are not happy with the way the leadership has handled the Iraq war," said Chandra Muzaffar, president of the Malaysia-based think-tank, International Movement for a Just World.

Bush's foreign critics cheered in places including Vietnam — the site of an earlier American war in the 1960s and 70s — and Muslim-dominated countries.

"The Republicans lost in the election because the American voters are now fed up and bored with the war," said Vitaya Wisetrat, a prominent, anti-American Muslim cleric in Thailand. "The American people now realize that Bush is the big liar."
Echoing sentiment expressed by many opponents of the war, Indonesian lawmaker Ahmad Sumargono hoped that the results would prompt a reassessment of American policies in Iraq and elsewhere. Others speculated that Democrats would use their power over legislative committees to press for change.

In Europe, where public sentiment ran strong against the 2003 invasion of Iraq despite the support of some governments there, many were gratified by the evidence of a turn in U.S. voter sentiment.

"You can't fool everybody all the time — and I think that's what Bush and his administration are learning today," said Jean-Pierre Charpemtrat, a 53-year-old teacher in Paris.

People across the Mideast reacted swiftly the results, saying Bush was now paying the price for a profoundly failed policy.

"The security and political situation of America in Iraq is very bad because of the mistakes of Bush's administration, and this popular reaction means many pressures on the presidency in the next two years," said Kuwaiti political analyst Abdul-Ridha Aseeri.

The prospect of a sudden change in American foreign policy could be troubling to U.S. allies — such as Britain, Japan and Australia — that have thrown their support behind the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Still, it was unclear whether there would be a major shift in Iraq, in part because the Democrats have not come ahead with a clear action plan, said Michael McKinley, a political science professor at the Australian National University.

"There would have been some concern in policy making circles here if the Democrats had said, 'We are definitely going to withdraw by Christmas,"' McKinley said. "But they're not able to say that."

U.S. policy on North Korea, which angered the world by testing a nuclear device on Oct. 9, is high on the agenda in Asia. Despite the test, Pyongyang has pledged to return to stalled six-nation talks on its weapons program.

While some in South Korea have speculated that a Democratic victory could erode Bush's hard-line approach toward Pyongyang, others were skeptical.

Kim Tae-woo, a North Korea expert at the Seoul-based Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said Bush was unlikely to make radical changes in his policy in his final two years in office, particularly since the North was not a major campaign issue.

In China, the resurgence of the Democrats raised fears of renewed U.S. concern over human rights and trade and labor issues. China's surging economy has a massive trade surplus with the United States.

"The Democratic Party ... will protect the interests of small and medium American enterprises and labor and that could produce an impact on China-U.S. trade relations," Zhang Guoqing of the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in a report on Sina.com, one of China's most popular Internet portals.

The Japanese government said the results would not change Tokyo's warm ties with Washington.

But the shift in favor of the Democrats was expected to complicate Japan's diplomatic approach to the U.S. For years, the Japanese have been able to successfully woo Bush's White House, knowing that the Republican Congress would largely follow its lead.