The U.S. election

As you know by now, the elections are over and Barack Obama is the president-elect of the United States.  We were actually in the States on Election Day, so we got to see the election from the perspective of both sides of the Atlantic. The French were unabashed in their support for Obama, believing he will put a warmer and more consensus-oriented face on U.S./world relations. Even the extpatriate community here supported him by at least 4 to 1 over McCain (according to my unofficial tally).  The Economist magazine did an online "election" of sorts where 53,000 people worldwide voted and the candidates received faux Electoral College votes based on the proportion of population in the countries. In this experiment, Obama wins the popular vote by about 44,000 to 9,000.  The electoral college vote is even more lopsided:  9,115 to 203, with McCain taking only Cuba, Congo, Algeria and Iraq (?). See The Economist, Nov 8-14, page 23 or www.economist.com/vote2008 

This isn't a political column, but congratulations to Mr Obama just the same. I don't envy him. There is really no way he can live up to the enormous expectations with which he has been saddled.  He inherits record debt, a broken U.S. economy bobbing in a global recession, an unpopular war with no obvious exit route, Iran cranking away on a nuclear weapon and Russia starting to get feisty again. Meanwhile, he arrives on the scene as the biggest celebrity politician we have ever had, with scads of endorsements from that most intellectual and sage of political policy think-tanks, Hollywood, and everyone who is anyone from inside the beltway scurrying to touch the hem of his garment. I even heard he laid hands on a blind man and made him see. Or maybe he made a deaf man blind, I can't remember. Regardless, despite his talents and the enthusiasm he generates he could very well go down in the books as a miserable president simply from the hand he was dealt.

Anyway, as an American you can't help but be proud that we've gotten to the point where an African American can be president. Whether you voted for him or not, you can't escape the magnitude of history made this week. And pause too to remember that we take for granted the orderly change of power that occurs (except for a brief bit of snippiness in 2000) after our elections. Not all countries can count on that. So even if the world is going to hell in a shopping cart (it won't fit in a handbasket), we can at least take pride in our nation and have a bit of optimism for a little while.