Who will be the next president of the United States? This question may be the most popular question on almost everyone's lips because the day of the presidential election, November 7th, is pretty close. As this day gets closer, more doubts are appearing in the minds of the American people, and these doubts have some ground. There are two candidates for this post: George W. Bush and Al Gore. One of them, George W. Bush, is a Republican, the other one, Al Gore, is a Democrat. They are representatives of two different political systems, so it seems to me that they might have different programs for further development of the United States. However after reading the article, "The Irrelevant Election," written by Sebastian Mallaby in Foreign Policy, I found out some interesting aspects of this issue. Even though Gore and Bush belong to different sides, they differ from each other just in their manner to cover some topics. Generally, they have a lot of similar points of view on most of the important issues.
First of all, Gore holds a strong opinion about foreign aid issues such as a fight against diseases and the creation of strong governments. On the other hand, Bush does not pay enough attention to this issue, but he agrees that it is necessary. Another is that Bush thinks that the U.S should develop a national missile defense, not only land-based but also space- and sea- based systems, while Gore prefers to get only land-based system under way. Both candidates believe that the U.S. should further develop relations with China, but on different terms: Bush states confidently that China is a strategic opponent, but Gore is sure that China is a "strategic partner.".
Considering the question of the U.S. foreign policy Bush and Gore are pretty much alike. Gore is both realistic and idealistic, just as Bush is. Gore does not want the U.S. army to interfere in every foreign conflict. Gore's realistic opinion is to look at the consequences of the U.
