Obama win sparks global praise, cheers

More international cooperation?
On streets around the world, people celebrated and mourned the results of the American election.

Australian Phil Keeling was plastered head-to-toe in a red, white and blue outfit with both Obama and McCain buttons as he crowded into a hotel ballroom in downtown Sydney, Australia to watch election results on two giant TV screens.

“There’s a chance the image of the U.S. may change dramatically, and it’s nice to be part of it,” he said. He refused to say which candidate he preferred. Around him, Australians and Americans stood under a cloud of red, white and blue balloons and snacked on American treats like mini hamburgers and hot dogs.

Hopes were also high among many critical of President Bush’s policies that an Obama victory would herald a more inclusive, internationally cooperative U.S. approach. Many cited the Iraq war as the type of blunder Obama was unlikely to repeat.

At a party in Rio de Janeiro, where Brazilians and Americans watched the returns, a 33-year-old music producer said an Obama win would show that “Americans have learned something from the bad experiences of the Bush administration.

“Choosing Obama is a great opportunity for Americans to show the world they can change, be humble and learn from their mistakes, which were not small,” said Zanna, who uses only one name.

Watching with rapt attention
Umang Khosla, a senior marketing manager in Mumbai, India, with a multinational shipping company, said Obama would be widely welcomed after Bush, who he said “was hated the world over.”

“With Obama, the world will see the Americans as having more sense, being more receptive to change,” Khosla said on his way to work. “If Obama even remotely changes things, perceptions will change.”

Obama’s victory capped a campaign that many millions around the world had watched with rapt attention.

In Germany, where more than 200,000 people flocked to see Obama this summer as he burnished his foreign policy credentials during a trip to the Middle East and Europe, the U.s. election dominated television ticker crawls, newspaper headlines and Web sites.

Obama-mania
Obama-mania was evident not only across Europe but also in much of the Islamic world, where Muslims expressed hope that the Democrat would seek compromise rather than confrontation.

The Bush administration alienated Muslims with its treatment of prisoners at its detention center for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and of inmates at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison — human rights violations also condemned worldwide.

Nizar al-Kortas, a columnist for Kuwait’s Al-Anbaa newspaper, saw an Obama victory as “a historic step to change the image of the arrogant American administration.”

Yet McCain had enjoyed a strong current of support in Israel, where he was perceived as tougher on Iran than Obama. Taking a cigarette break on a Jerusalem street corner, bank employee Leah Nizri, 53, favored McCain.

“He’s too young,” she said of Obama. “I think that especially in a situation of a world recession, where things are so unclear in the world, McCain would be better than Obama.”

'Mere promises'
Not everyone expected Obama to follow through on his promise to change U.S. policies. In Iraq, where the Bush government ignited a war in 2003 that has yet to end, some were skeptical of American intentions in the Middle East.

“I think Obama’s victory will do nothing for the Iraqi issue nor for the Palestinian issue,” said Muneer Jamal, a Baghdad resident. “I think all the promises Obama made during the campaign will remain mere promises.”

Still, many around the world found Obama’s international roots — his father was Kenyan, and he lived four years in Indonesia as a child — compelling and attractive.

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