Global views on the Obama election

The New York Times reports on reactions to Obama's win around the world. It's interesting to note that this article's (highly unrepresentative) sample of respondents often take the election win as being a reflection upon the American political system, as much as a means of expressing their resentment towards George Bush. The observations of Philippe Sands, Professor of International Law at UCL, and Francis Nyamnjoh, of the CODESRIA, also make a lot of sense:

"'People feel he is a part of them because he has this multiracial, multiethnic and multinational dimension,” said Philippe Sands, a British international lawyer and author who travels frequently, adding that people find some thread of their own hopes and ideals in Mr. Obama. “He represents, for people in so many different communities and cultures, a personal connection. There is an immigrant component and a minority component.”

Francis Nyamnjoh, a Cameroonian novelist and social scientist, said he saw Mr. Obama less as a black man than “as a successful negotiator of identity margins.”

His ability to inhabit so many categories mirrors the African experience. Mr. Nyamnjoh said that for America to choose as its citizen in chief such a skillful straddler of global identities could not help but transform the nation’s image, making it once again the screen upon which the hopes and ambitions of the world are projected"

If these observations are true in part, then it becomes virtually impossible for Obama to sustain these levels of support within the international community. Given the different, often contradictory, reasons for his appeal, and the fact that his primary base is domestic, Obama is sure to dissatisfy some of his supporters soon after assuming office.