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NOVEMBER 7, 2008 3:37AM

Random people on the bus congratulate me on Obama

Rate: 28 Flag

 My friends, 

Oh to be American in a small European village after Obama's victory!

I cannot describe to you the outpouring of love and support for America that everyone here has displayed since Obama has won. People love America again, they are once again impressed by our forward-thinking attitude and trail-blazing ways.

My boss, a rare conservative Reagan supporter of Italian and French extraction, said to me that he thinks Obama's victory displays America's ability to question itself and improve itself, which he greatly admires.

A woman on the bus saw my Obama button and smiled and gave me a thumbs up.

Fellow interns ran up to me on Wednesday to say congratulations and to express their elation.

10 people crammed into my small studio at 2am to watch election results, "what a great honor and privilege it is to watch them with an American!"

Did you see President Amedinejad of Iran congratulating Obama? Yeah, this is what I am talking about.

We are once again beloved and admired and not only that, President-elect Obama has a very large benefit of a doubt from the world. He can screw up significantly and the world would still love him.

So in short, a big yay to you all.

PS I hope to post my Paris Obama montage shortly.

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people like us again, president amedinejad, europe, obama

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Ah, to be there listening to the kudos and being liked! I am full of envy. My eyes are turning green to match the rest of me.
suzyishere
November 07, 2008 05:25 AM
My daughter and I were talking about this yesterday. I said to her that change is usually a process, but overnight, Americans went from being disdained to once again trusted. We were thinking that being an American this week in Europe might even been seen with envy. What a switch! Thanks for sharing and I look forward to your Paris montage.
marytkelly
November 07, 2008 06:28 AM
Hopefully your Paris montage will be photos, yes?
Koakuma
November 07, 2008 07:14 AM
M.B., it's great to hear the positive reaction that you are encountering. There were plenty of us who voted for Gore and Kerry in the last two elections and I'm guessing that some of the world's population may have forgotten that there were voter caging and purges, as well as tampering with vote tabulations that left us with eight years of disaster as a result.
designanator
November 07, 2008 07:38 AM
Thank you so much! I really needed to read this today. America needs her friends back. It says so much about them that they are still there, having waited for us to finally get it right. I can't wait for your montage.
Lisa Kern
November 07, 2008 09:10 AM
Nice to get dispatches from the front, Madame; am also looking forward to the Paris montage.
Lonnie Lazar
November 07, 2008 09:26 AM
I always thought one of the biggest "pros" of Obama was the international perception and support. With how interconnected the world is now, it's important for us to be respected and respectful of other countries instead of wielding a big stick and clubbing people with it. It seems that building good relationships with other countries that have reasonable governments means that when serious international crises arise requiring military intervention, we don't have to go it alone (or practically alone, like the Iraq debacle - not that it falls into the category of requiring military intervention). Obama has a thoughtful world view, and I think other countries perceive that.
buckeyedoc
November 07, 2008 09:50 AM
Love to hear this news it is music to my ears.

After the announcement that Obama had won I started to collect screenshots of all the international headlines - while my husband (Austrian) was checking out the news in the German press.

It was a beautiful thing (Well, except for the Russian headline graphic - which was rather troubling) . I've posted all the screenshots on my blog if anyone is interested - even the bizarre Russian one depicting a cartoonish Obama and McCain which I would call it racist and insulting.
Cherie Siebert 'artsfish'
November 07, 2008 09:59 AM
My daughter in Toulouse called to tell me about the parties they were having in that city to celebrate the Obama victory. I have lived in France several times since my first stay in the mid 1950's and I have seen French attitudes (sometimes I think the French are all attitude)
shift dramatically from warmly positive to rabidly anti-American. It was all "U.S. GO HOME" in the 'fifties- especially around the time of the Rosenberg execution. We were "cool" in the sixties but the Vietnam war was not a PR success. Now we have a President who some might call "Black" ( really he's no blacker than about 30 of the so called "white" population. We are probably not Georgians as McCain suggested but a lot of us are of mixed ethnic origins)
Anyway, Obama's "cool" for now in Europe, let's hope he stays that way for a long time.
Ned Smith
November 07, 2008 09:59 AM
I was amazed that, prior to the election, a lot of pundits (conservatives especially, but liberals sometimes too) were saying that it was foolhardy for a citizen to even consider how the world would react to a candidate as a factor in voting. Where are these people now?

Turns out, it is very refreshing and even exhilarating to have the approval of the world. Who would have thought?
Michael Hebert
November 07, 2008 10:39 AM
My sister, The Wood Elf, teaches French and she's been sending me French articles and world headlines for the past week. She also commented on the Kenyan response, which included a national holiday declared in Obama's honor yesterday. Heady stuff, indeed. Let's hope we can turn the country around. There's a lot of work to be done. Paws up!
DogWoman
November 07, 2008 12:23 PM
This is wonderful to hear. I too am proud of our nation again. My anger over its hijacking has been very difficult to live with. I will be so glad to bid it, and the Bush Administration, good riddance.
Naseem Rakha
November 07, 2008 01:14 PM
At first, I would have been disappointed to find myself overseas and missing this election. But your post reminds me that the whole world is watching. Our standing in the world has been elevated. Wow!
Joan K
November 07, 2008 05:57 PM
Yeah! Like wow. I voted for him too!
Black Bart
November 09, 2008 08:29 PM
I'm bustin' my buttons over the e-mails and phone calls I've receivd from Europe and Asia expressing joy and (not just a little) relief over the results of our amazing electoral process. I will be in Toronto on business for the inauguration...I am a little sad about this but you've reminded me of the silver lining--looking at our country from the outside in. More Americans should have this vantage point. Thanks for sharing.
goldentoast
November 16, 2008 12:10 AM
I'm bustin' my buttons over the e-mails and phone calls I've receivd from Europe and Asia expressing joy and (not just a little) relief over the results of our amazing electoral process. I will be in Toronto on business for the inauguration...I am a little sad about this but you've reminded me of the silver lining--looking at our country from the outside in. More Americans should have this vantage point. Thanks for sharing.
goldentoast
November 16, 2008 12:10 AM
R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Take care, TCB ohhhh (Sock it to me,etc.)

A little respect oh yeah ( Just a little bit)
A little respect ( Just a little Bit)

"Aretha Franklin"
Velina
November 30, 2008 01:54 PM
I was living in Paris during the 2000 election. Even the kiosks didn't know which International Herald Tribune to sell. None of my friends believed America could be that stupid. When I moved back to the states and settled in Florida (yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment and decided to live with the devil), I spent a few years defending the French opposition to the war.
It's 2008 and I FINALLY seem to have gotten it right. I'm living in the right country at the right time; better yet, I'm enjoying being smug in what has been a red state for too long.
Rated for nostalgia.
cartouche
December 07, 2008 12:10 PM
M.B., Happy New Year AND Happy Birthday! I'm hoping you'll be back before long, as I've missed your presence and great posts.
designanator
January 01, 2009 09:22 PM
While I'm trying to keep myself realistic and keep telling myself things are still going to be difficult for a while , a certain number of things will get better almost as soon as Bush leaves office and Obama becomes President. The biggest thing for me is that I will no longer want to throw bricks and scream obscenities at my TV during the State of the Union. It's also a great relief to know America still has enough gray cells to rub together and elect a Prez who won't perpetually embarrass himself and all of us overseas. I had great doubts after the 2004 election.

This post was a really nice read. Rated.
Shiral
January 07, 2009 10:51 PM
hey MB! still waiting on that Paris montage...
Sandra Stephens
January 28, 2009 01:09 AM
I knew, when then-candidate Obama spoke in Germany before those many thousands of Europeans, that he was truly going to be our great hope. On election day I wore my Obama tshirt, and everywhere I went people stopped me and said something positive about him. And this was in NORTH DALLAS, TEXAS, so y'all gotta know, not EVERYbody from Texas is a Repugugly. Or stupid.
Maryann McBreen
January 28, 2009 12:52 PM
OBAMA!!! Yes We Did!! Isn't it lovely how the world respects us again :) President Obama definitely has tons of work thanks to that good ol country bumpkin we had for a haunting 8.... I rock all the Obama gear & I love when people give me the look of HOPE 09 time to shine!
Amber Deylon
February 16, 2009 07:33 AM
this is enough to get me on a plane to Europe tout suite!
Nikki Stern
April 24, 2009 09:14 AM
We no longer have to hide the cover of our passports?

Let's all keep remembering this post whenever we get discouraged with all the homebound Obama trash talk we have to submit to on a daily basis. There were enough of us to elect our man last go-around—remember how we all thought the country was full of idiots who wouldn't vote for him?—and there still are.... sometimes we hear what our own country is thinking through another's voice....

Lois
James and Lois Cowan
August 26, 2010 03:27 AM
Im sorry but this is just ill informed, naive, and just plain silly. They play both policitical parties against eachother. Swapping one side for the other, to distract the masses into believing they are in concensus with the will of the people. When in reality they wouldnt in a million years. Their modi operandi is greeeeeed. And Power. Period. The secret powers above all, concot their front men/women to swing in and fulfil their agendas, while fooling the rest of the world into thinking it involvs any kind of CHANGE WHATSOEVER. Everyone can agree Obama has changed nothing, only furthered all that Bush had done. The presidency is a front, a actors role, a distraction. The government has spun out of control and there is no stopping it. Welcome to Machine.
Mikedk1978
July 02, 2011 12:14 PM
I have to agree with Mikeyk1978 and remember we are writing in 2011 after the glow has worn off. I was quoted by Reuters in London as describing him as a godsend, but maybe now I would retract that naivete. Yes, it's great we finally have a black president, and he is black to whomsoever would like to spin it another way, with a black family. But that is not what matters. He is an actor and he is promoting the interests of more greedy, dark, directors who really run the country. Sorry, Obama. No, you can't. There are too many opposing forces.
Lucien Quincy Senna
October 05, 2011 12:11 PM