Another update from Brazil

Last night -- October 7 -- I watched the presidential debate with a bunch of diplomats from other embassies in Brasilia.

I met the deputy chiefs of mission (DCM) from France, Spain, Canada, and New Zealand. Also, the guy who covers the United States and Canada for the Brazilian foreign ministry (like the State Department) was there.

The talk among the diplomats was pretty interesting. They had all lived in so many exciting places.

The DCM from New Zealand was raised in the Washington, DC area because his father worked for the World Bank. The DCM said he returned to New Zealand for his university course. As part of the course he went to Antarctica.

How cool is that! (Really cool actually. Even during the summer it is below zero degrees Fahrenheit.)

The Canadian DCM is from Nova Scotia way on the east coast of Canada. He has also lived in Colombia and Venezuela.

The Spanish DCM was assigned to his embassy in the United States before coming to Brazil.

All of the DCMs have only been in Brazil for about two months.

The same as my hosts, Dan and Lisa.

You know, everyone thinks of diplomats as very stuffy and formal.

These folks were very casual and relaxed. They stood around talking about life in Brazil or the latest news.

They were all a lot of fun to be around.

One of the things that was clear was that everyone at the debate had opinions about the answers. No one said he or she was for one candidate or another but they did have some thoughts about the way the two candidates were answering the questions.

One thing they did notice, the only foreign policy question asked was about Iraq.

No questions about China or the rest of Asia. Nothing about Africa. Nothing about Latin America. And nothing about Europe.

The visiting DCMs wondered if Iraq and Afghanistan are the only things Americans think about when they think about foreign policy.

Good question.

What do you think?