Obamania abroad

It's quite interesting to see the effect that Barack Hussein is having here; it seems like most of the security folks, retail clerks, etc. smile at us a little more since the election outcome. Michelle even had a Bangladeshi janitor give her a thumbs up and "Obama!" cheer when she left work Tuesday night. The Syrian guy at the sweet shop (who, as it turns out, is spending the next two years in Qatar to avoid his service in the Syrian Army and sent back the required remittance so that he can actually return and not have a jail cell waiting for him) reached over the counter and shook my hand and said "Obama good." The Turkish barber said "Bush bad blood." Our Syrian Arabic teacher said he liked Obama but would have preferred Hillary "beautiful, strong." I won't even touch that one.

This is all regardless of the fact that Obama will simply do some things that any US President will, and will support Israel (in general), send more troops into Afghanistan, etc. People here know the difference between a government and a people. We've travelled in Egypt and Jordan where people gave us a thumbs up every time we said we were American, saying "Al Ahsen Nas," meaning "The Best People." (As an aside, we didn't test the theory, but I always wondered if we told them we were from Bosnia-Herzegovna they would have responded similarly). I think people just didn't think we'd use as blunt an instrument so readily in our war on terror, but they cut us, personally, some slack.

But at least for a while, they can look up to the United States as the classless meritocracy we've always aspired to be. And regardless of your political affiliations, a 65% turnout and a mixed race president being voted in by a mainly white nation could happen nowhere else I can think of, and it's something of which every McCain and every Obama voter should be proud. That janitor and that barber and baker realize that and appreciate it. In many ways, more than we ever can.