Much of the world exults in Obama
His diverse background is inspiration
WASHINGTON - As congratulations for Barack Obama poured in yesterday from world leaders and from ordinary people around the globe, the reaction of US friends and foes alike suggests that Obama will receive a level of international good will not seen by a US president since John F. Kennedy.
"The World Salutes Obama's Victory," Le Figaro, France's leading daily, crooned. "Good Morning Mr. President," yelled a headline in English in German's best-selling tabloid, Bild. Even Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez - who called Bush the devil from the podium at the United Nations - congratulated Obama.
Yesterday, much of the world appeared euphoric over the new US president-elect, whose diverse background makes him a compelling figure citizens abroad can relate to. With a mother from Kansas, a father from Kenya, a stepfather from Indonesia and a middle name - Hussein - from the Middle East, Obama has sparked the imagination of people on every continent.
"Your extraordinary journey to the White House will inspire people not only in your country but also around the world," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote to Obama yesterday in a letter posted on the Indian Embassy's website.
"Your success is a sign that the American dream continues to inspire your people," French Prime Minister François Fillon wrote to Obama. "And today this dream transcends your borders."
But as soon as the congratulations came, so, too, did the requests for Obama to begin solving the world's most difficult problems.
"Make the world better!" the German tabloid implored Obama, requesting that he jump-start the global economy, help the poor, end the war in Iraq, and close the US naval detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
It remains to be seen whether Obama's global popularity will give him the ability to pull off foreign policy victories that President Bush could not, such as garnering more European troops for Afghanistan or persuading Iran to stop its controversial nuclear program, said Richard C. Eichenberg, a political science professor at Tuft University's Fletcher School.
"This is truly an earthquake in the way the world looks at the United States, in the short run," he said. "How long that lasts, we just don't know."
Eichenberg helped conduct a German Marshall Fund poll in September that showed 47 percent of Europeans believed that US-European relations would improve under Obama, compared with 11 percent who thought relations would improve under John McCain. A BBC World Service survey of 22,531 citizens from 22 countries showed 49 percent preferred Obama, while only 12 percent preferred McCain. But many of Obama's admirers overseas did not believe he could win, given the 2004 reelection of Bush.
"What a pleasure it is to have been proved so wrong in expressing doubts that American voters would actually do it," British blogger Mike White wrote on PoliticsBlog yesterday.
On election night, as Americans beat pots and pans in front of the White House in a spontaneous, flag-draped parade, celebrations erupted around the world. In Kenya, where the news of Obama's victory broke at breakfast-time, people who had stayed awake all night awaiting the results danced in the streets. President Mwai Kibaki declared yesterday a national holiday.
In Indonesia, where Obama lived for about four years as a child, hundreds of students at Obama's old elementary school cheered and danced in the rain.
In the seaside town of Obama, Japan, the election attracted about 1,500 people, who celebrated the news around lunchtime as they gathered to watch hula dancers sway in honor of Obama's Hawaiian birthplace.
Throughout the Caribbean, radios played calypso superstar Mighty Sparrow's song "Barack the Magnificent." Los Angeles-based Obama activist Miguel Orozco said listeners from Columbia, Argentina, and Panama had downloaded his song "Como Se
One listener from Chile wrote a message to Obama when he downloaded the song. "Mr. Obama, my message to you is: Bring peace to the world."
But that will be a tall order for a new president facing a global financial meltdown, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a festering Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and lingering nuclear crises in both North Korea and Iran.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev did not appear to offer any public congratulations, underscoring the new tensions in the US-Russia relationship over Georgia. The reaction in Asia was also cautious.
"Obviously, the Europeans and the Africans are bouncing off the moon," said Charles Freeman, chair of the China studies program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "But the Chinese are worried because they are used to Republicans, and they don't like anything that might rock the boat or create instability."
Obama's popularity in some parts of the Muslim world may have been sparked by erroneous rumors about his religion. Khalid Pashtoon, a member of Parliament from Afghanistan's Kandahar Province, told the Financial Times that many Afghans prefer Obama because "he was raised by a Muslim family." Obama spent most of his childhood with his American mother and grandparents, who gave him a largely secular upbringing.
Still, requests poured in yesterday for Obama to deliver change in the Middle East.
"No president of a country as powerful as the United States has ever been seen as such a unifying figure," said Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University. "Most of the world sees Barack Obama as their leader. . . . It's a gigantic burden on his shoulders."
Material from Globe wire services was used in this report. 