This is the fall of the Berlin Wall times ten," Rama Yade, France's junior minister for human rights, told French radio. "On this morning, we all want to be American, so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes."Actually the happiness seems to be two-fold. Africans are happy for the same reason we are: race. If the leader nation of the free world can elect a black man president, it means they aren't second class citizens of the world. Fascinating they think that way, but I can share in that pleasure.
Then we're given a survey of others who are happy...and they're all from Muslim countries. Forgive me if I'm a little circumspect about what that indicates!
The story makes me feel sorry for Obama, actually. When the whole world is looking to you for leadership, the first move you make is going to deeply disillusion half of them.
And P.S. A Russian real estate broker lets the world in on a little secret: the U.S. isn't where you go to find racism:
The fact that he's black can be an obstacle -- there's still a lot of racism in the world, in Europe and Russia too. I think he can take a leading role in the Western hemisphere, but not in this part of the world.
