Michael Ussery, former US Ambassador to Morocco, spoke about “US Elections and the Next US Foreign Policy” in the Red Room on Monday, Nov 10. The event is the second guest speaker lecture organized by “The Ghastly” and marked Ussery’s fifth visit to AUBG.
 
Although Ussery is a Republican, he said the main reason for the Democratic success in the presidential elections was George W. Bush. The state of the US economy, the level of funding of the campaigns, and the campaigns themselves also played an important part. Last but not least was the so-called Latino vote. Ussery used anecdotes and examples from his personal experience all over the world to spice up the analysis.

“The analysis the former Ambassador Ussery gave us was […] a sort of correct interpretation of what happened in the elections,” said history professor Pierangelo Castagneto.

“He did not say anything. He either did not have a clue of what he was talking about, or he did not want to share it. […] The lecture was a summary of the headlines in the press”, said junior Lyubomir Kasabov.

“He bombarded us with lots of information; he actually made me think about many aspects I haven’t thought about before,” senior Margarita Petrova said. However, “he should have structured his lecture in a better fashion.”

Senior Anelia Sotyanova said she expected a view on the reactions of the Arabic world to the election of Barack Obama.

Satisfied or not, the audience seemed to agree with the last idea in the speech of Michael Ussery - that if Obama does not succeed in his stay at the White house, then we could all witness a “permanent US decline.”