Foreign Correspondent’s Take: No Vacation for US Election Campaigns

People around the world are watching the election campaign here closely.

Many want to know how US foreign policy might evolve, while others are simply fascinated by the campaign itself.

Willem Post, a US expert at the Clingendael Institute for International Relations in the Hague, says the contrast to elections back home in the Netherlands is incredible.

Post is just back from the Obama campaign headquarters in Chicago, and says 600 youngsters are working away there from 7 a.m. until 9 or 10 at night.

Both sides, he says, are fighting for every vote.

By contrast, he notes, Dutch politicians — who face a general election on September 12th — are currently all away on summer vacation.