PARIS Barack Obama's election as America's first black president unleashed a renewed love for the United States after years of dwindling goodwill, and many said Wednesday that U.S. voters had blazed a trail that minorities elsewhere could follow.
People across Africa stayed up all night or woke before dawn to watch U.S. history being made, while the president of Kenya where Obama's father was born declared a public holiday.
In Indonesia, where Obama lived as child, hundreds of students at his former elementary school erupted in cheers when he was declared winner and poured into the courtyard where they hugged each other, danced in the rain and chanted "Obama! Obama!"
"Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place," South Africa's first black president, Nelson Mandela, said in a letter of congratulations to Obama.
Many expressed amazement and satisfaction that the United States could overcome centuries of racial strife and elect an African-American as president.
"This is the fall of the Berlin Wall times ten," Rama Yade, France's black junior minister for human rights, told French radio. "America is rebecoming a New World.
"On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes," she said.
In Britain, The Sun newspaper borrowed from Neil Armstrong's 1969 moon landing in describing Obama's election as "one giant leap for mankind."
Yet celebrations were often tempered by sobering concerns that Obama faces global challenges as momentous as the hopes his campaign inspired wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the elusive hunt for peace in the Middle East and a global economy in turmoil.
The huge weight of responsibilities on Obama's shoulders was also a concern for some. French former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said Obama's biggest challenge would be managing a punishing agenda of various crises in the United States and the world. "He will need to fight on every front," he said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he hoped the incoming administration will take steps to improve badly damaged U.S. ties with Russia. Tensions have been driven to a post-Cold War high by Moscow's war with U.S. ally Georgia.
"I stress that we have no problem with the American people, no inborn anti-Americanism. And we hope that our partners, the U.S. administration, will make a choice in favor of full-fledged relations with Russia," Medvedev said.
Europe, where Obama is overwhelmingly popular, is one region that looked eagerly to an Obama administration for a revival in warm relations after the Bush government's chilly rift with the continent over the Iraq war.
"At a time when we have to confront immense challenges together, your election raises great hopes in France, in Europe and in the rest of the world," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a congratulations letter to Obama.
Poland's Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski spoke of "a new America with a new credit of trust in the world."
Skepticism, however, was high in the Muslim world. The Bush administration alienated those in the Middle East by mistreating prisoners at its detention center for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison human rights violations also condemned worldwide.
Some Iraqis, who have suffered through five years of a war ignited by the United States and its allies, said they would believe positive change when they saw it.
"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."
In Pakistan, a country vital to the U.S.-led war on the al-Qaida terrorist network and neighbor to Afghanistan, many hoped Obama would bring some respite from rising militant violence that many blame on Bush.
Still, Mohammed Arshad, a 28-year-old schoolteacher in the capital, Islamabad, doubted Obama's ability to change U.S. foreign policy dramatically.
"It is true that Bush gave America a very bad name. He has become a symbol of hate. But I don't think the change of face will suddenly make any big difference," he said.
Obama's victory was greeted with cheers across Latin America, a region that has shifted sharply to the left during the Bush years. From Mexico to Chile, leaders expressed hope for warmer relations based on mutual respect a quality many felt has been missing from U.S. foreign policy.
Venezuela and Bolivia, which booted out the U.S. ambassadors after accusing the Bush administration of meddling in their internal politics, said they were ready to reestablish diplomatic relations, and Brazil's president was among several leaders urging Obama to be more flexible toward Cuba.
On the streets of Rio de Janeiro, people expressed a mixture of joy, disbelief, and hope for the future.
"It's the beginning of a different era," police officer Emmanuel Miranda said. "The United States is a country to dream about, and for us black Brazilians, it is even easier to do so now."
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.
"What an inspiration. He is the first truly global U.S. president the world has ever had," said Pracha Kanjananont, a 29-year-old Thai sitting at a Starbuck's in Bangkok. "He had an Asian childhood, African parentage and has a Middle Eastern name. He is a truly global president."
Posts: 2321 | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
Ace, I know that many black people all around the world are celebrating Obama's victory because of what it does for them as blacks. I'd dance with them on that if I could dance.
But, I think that, for every black person celebrating the Democrat's winning, there are numbers of non-black people celebrating just as eagerly. They are celebrating the democrats as liberators!
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:Originally posted by a surfer: "They are celebrating the democrats as liberators! "
Will Obama be called a liberator when NYC gets nuked??? Or Fort Worth?
You are slow, so I will explain. It isn't that Obama is the liberator or that any one person or any group of persons is. It is the defeat of the Republican Party, the casting out of the oppressor, the negator of our Constitution that liberates us.
Now attention needs to be directed at repairing the faulty rudder on the republican party ship that brought is to near ruin.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I don't think that we should block ANY of the left's bills. Let's let them run free and they'll be out of power in 2 years. Of course, I don't want the Republicans to be in power either, unless we can find a conservative to lead the ticket.
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Propertymanager: I don't think that we should block ANY of the left's bills. Let's let them run free and they'll be out of power in 2 years. Of course, I don't want the Republicans to be in power either, unless we can find a conservative to lead the ticket.
Ya Republicans have a leadership problem right now. They lost their way.
Need to get back to the message: Less government is more. Cut spending to balance the budget, only raise taxes for clear cut project. Don't throw money at a problem, find out what the cause is first,aka the 840bil handout.
-------------------- Let's Go METS!!! Posts: 3317 | From: CT | Registered: Dec 2006
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posted
I know it is difficult for the indoctrinated to see, but contrary to the confusion of narrow minded propagandist of the RNC and their cadre of far right-wing hate spreading radio talk show gurus, not all democratic bills are liberal.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by bdgee: I know it is difficult for the indoctrinated to see, but contrary to the confusion of narrow minded propagandist of the RNC and their cadre of far right-wing hate spreading radio talk show gurus, not all democratic bills are liberal.
Name ONE!
-------------------- Let's Go METS!!! Posts: 3317 | From: CT | Registered: Dec 2006
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posted
Sarah Palin is not ruling out 2012 she says. However I think Mitt Romney/Mike Huckabee ticket would be best as of now.
They are eyeing that Louisianna gov possibly already.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
Bdgee has never been right about anything, so don't expect him to start now. He's not looking through bill after bill, he's still typing his page and a half of gibberish filled with nonsense and 3rd grade insults for everyone that doesn't follow the lefty party line.
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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PARIS Barack Obama's election as America's first black president unleashed a renewed love for the United States after years of dwindling goodwill, and many said Wednesday that U.S. voters had blazed a trail that minorities elsewhere could follow.
People across Africa stayed up all night or woke before dawn to watch U.S. history being made, while the president of Kenya where Obama's father was born declared a public holiday.
In Indonesia, where Obama lived as child, hundreds of students at his former elementary school erupted in cheers when he was declared winner and poured into the courtyard where they hugged each other, danced in the rain and chanted "Obama! Obama!"
"Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place," South Africa's first black president, Nelson Mandela, said in a letter of congratulations to Obama.
Many expressed amazement and satisfaction that the United States could overcome centuries of racial strife and elect an African-American as president.
"This is the fall of the Berlin Wall times ten," Rama Yade, France's black junior minister for human rights, told French radio. "America is rebecoming a New World.
"On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes," she said.
In Britain, The Sun newspaper borrowed from Neil Armstrong's 1969 moon landing in describing Obama's election as "one giant leap for mankind."
Yet celebrations were often tempered by sobering concerns that Obama faces global challenges as momentous as the hopes his campaign inspired wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the elusive hunt for peace in the Middle East and a global economy in turmoil.
The huge weight of responsibilities on Obama's shoulders was also a concern for some. French former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said Obama's biggest challenge would be managing a punishing agenda of various crises in the United States and the world. "He will need to fight on every front," he said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he hoped the incoming administration will take steps to improve badly damaged U.S. ties with Russia. Tensions have been driven to a post-Cold War high by Moscow's war with U.S. ally Georgia.
"I stress that we have no problem with the American people, no inborn anti-Americanism. And we hope that our partners, the U.S. administration, will make a choice in favor of full-fledged relations with Russia," Medvedev said.
Europe, where Obama is overwhelmingly popular, is one region that looked eagerly to an Obama administration for a revival in warm relations after the Bush government's chilly rift with the continent over the Iraq war.
"At a time when we have to confront immense challenges together, your election raises great hopes in France, in Europe and in the rest of the world," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a congratulations letter to Obama.
Poland's Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski spoke of "a new America with a new credit of trust in the world."
Skepticism, however, was high in the Muslim world. The Bush administration alienated those in the Middle East by mistreating prisoners at its detention center for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison human rights violations also condemned worldwide.
Some Iraqis, who have suffered through five years of a war ignited by the United States and its allies, said they would believe positive change when they saw it.
"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."
In Pakistan, a country vital to the U.S.-led war on the al-Qaida terrorist network and neighbor to Afghanistan, many hoped Obama would bring some respite from rising militant violence that many blame on Bush.
Still, Mohammed Arshad, a 28-year-old schoolteacher in the capital, Islamabad, doubted Obama's ability to change U.S. foreign policy dramatically.
"It is true that Bush gave America a very bad name. He has become a symbol of hate. But I don't think the change of face will suddenly make any big difference," he said.
Obama's victory was greeted with cheers across Latin America, a region that has shifted sharply to the left during the Bush years. From Mexico to Chile, leaders expressed hope for warmer relations based on mutual respect a quality many felt has been missing from U.S. foreign policy.
Venezuela and Bolivia, which booted out the U.S. ambassadors after accusing the Bush administration of meddling in their internal politics, said they were ready to reestablish diplomatic relations, and Brazil's president was among several leaders urging Obama to be more flexible toward Cuba.
On the streets of Rio de Janeiro, people expressed a mixture of joy, disbelief, and hope for the future.
"It's the beginning of a different era," police officer Emmanuel Miranda said. "The United States is a country to dream about, and for us black Brazilians, it is even easier to do so now."
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.
"What an inspiration. He is the first truly global U.S. president the world has ever had," said Pracha Kanjananont, a 29-year-old Thai sitting at a Starbuck's in Bangkok. "He had an Asian childhood, African parentage and has a Middle Eastern name. He is a truly global president."
------------------------------------------ and now the facts:
Obama was raised 100% by white people he is white, his father who is black was in his life, but for all of 4 months( sound typical), he would not be where he is today, if he were raised by 2 black parents _ NO WAY> NO HOW !
The facts are the facts. His early pictures show with him only with white folks, but yet the sheep say hes black, not in education(Columbia & Harvard),not in upbringing, not in culture- oh hes mixed- but 100% raised white- so lets spew some b.s. through all the retarded media he is black -LIE,LIE,LIE!
not too many black folks are raised by whites and educated by whites and associate with blacks ( sorry for the 98% blacks who voted for him - suckers, he doesnt care about you at all-other then the votes he got from the dumbest of the dumb)
and trust if u had to have brains to vote he would have had only 25% of the popular vote, he got all the dummies to vote for him , u know the ones that can't even name 10 states or capitals, or recite 2 lines from the constitution)
Thank God hes not like most the saps that voted for him.....
Posts: 1551 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
Just a little food for thought Ohio trader. At least seeing that a 91 yr old former KKK member comes full circle shows there is some hope for you yet.
" (CNN) -- We have lived through a week unlike any other in our nation's history. We are not the same country on Friday that we were on Monday.
As a way of marking just how completely the circle has turned, consider West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd. He'll be 91 years old later this month. He is the longest-serving member of the Senate.
He started his career there in 1959 -- two years before Barack Obama was even born. Now Byrd, who is physically very frail, says he's handing over the reins of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which controls roughly $1 trillion worth of spending.
This is a political footnote in any other week but this one.
Byrd's era as one of the most powerful men in the Senate is ending in the same week that Obama was elected to the White House.
Why does this matter? It matters as a milestone of just how far we've come and how human beings can change.
Byrd was once a proud member of the Ku Klux Klan. He joined in 1942 when he was just 24 years old. At that time, a Klan official told him, "You have a talent for leadership, Bob...The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation." That was then. Byrd renounced the Klan decades ago, and today is one of the most admired men in the Senate.
A few weeks ago, he movingly urged his constituents to elect Sen. Obama.
On Tuesday night, Obama became the president-elect. A nation torn apart by slavery and an anguished Civil War less than a century-and-a-half ago resoundingly elected an African-American as its president.
Millions of Americans handed their dreams for a different America to Obama. Even those who did not support him cannot deny that tonight we live in a different nation.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Campbell Brown."
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
and trust if u had to have brains to vote he would have had only 25% of the popular vote, he got all the dummies to vote for him , u know the ones that can't even name 10 states or capitals, or recite 2 lines from the constitution)
I thought McCain won Kentucky
-------------------- Buy Low. Sell High. Posts: 10754 | From: The Land Of The Giants | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
If I would have been President elect and poked fun at Bill Clinton's wife I ......ah nevermind what the hell am I talking about. EVERYONE makes fun of Bill's wife! I am even wearing a RED shirt right now that has her painting next to Che with a hammer and sickle that reads "2008 revolution" "bringing dead ideologies back to life"
Of course, this was made before she lost her bid for President. I still wear it though from time to time in public to make liberals flaming mad
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:Originally posted by ohio_trader: [QUOTE]------------------------------------------ and now the facts:
Obama was raised 100% by white people he is white, his father who is black was in his life, but for all of 4 months( sound typical), he would not be where he is today, if he were raised by 2 black parents _ NO WAY> NO HOW !
The facts are the facts. His early pictures show with him only with white folks, but yet the sheep say hes black, not in education(Columbia & Harvard),not in upbringing, not in culture- oh hes mixed- but 100% raised white- so lets spew some b.s. through all the retarded media he is black -LIE,LIE,LIE!
not too many black folks are raised by whites and educated by whites and associate with blacks ( sorry for the 98% blacks who voted for him - suckers, he doesnt care about you at all-other then the votes he got from the dumbest of the dumb)
and trust if u had to have brains to vote he would have had only 25% of the popular vote, he got all the dummies to vote for him , u know the ones that can't even name 10 states or capitals, or recite 2 lines from the constitution)
Thank God hes not like most the saps that voted for him.....
I'm really hoping that was cut and pasted and that those aren't your own words there Ohio.
-------------------- No longer eligible for government service due to lack of tax issues. Posts: 5178 | From: Up North | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
Obama is bi-racial but in America (wrongly) we say he is black. He is half African and half white. Yes, for the most part he was raised by his mom and grandparents. His black African dad abandoned him (sound familiar)but Obama's identity is neither all white nor all black but bi-racial. However, the whites did not abandon him and gave him the best they could. However, he knows his white identity but his black was lost due to abandonment by his dad. So, he may be half white but he dont look like the whites and yet not totally black (read his books - didnt fit in). He married a black African American woman. Maybe, because that is the part of himself he wants to know. So, now he chose to live his life life closer to his black identity...Ironic, I say...
Either way, he is an intelligent man and thru inspiration touched so many folks. Also, I think because folks were sick and tired of the Bush clan... Hopefully, he can be america's president. I do not support his liberal ways but I have respect for his intellignece and his personality. Hopefully, he is decent so america can have a chance to recover and prosper....
Posts: 864 | Registered: Jun 2004
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-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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Juice, you know that is bull sh-t. The Obama backers don't have to hunt for something to talk about.
They have those really sharp republicans that voted for a cheer leader beauty contest looser that thinks Africa is a country and believes Alaska is unique in having a foreign country only dozens of miles away. If you bother to look at a map of North America and have some knowledge how to interpret what it will tell you (Palin has problems thee too, not knowing what countries are in North America), you can see quite clearly that at least a third of the 50 states do also.
It's hard to laugh at the situation, though, when you realize that republicans were so very eager to have their party win they were willing to put a totally incompetent cheer leader ninny in the presidency.
Yep, typical republican Party first, country somewhere down the line thinking.......again.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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