It's happening already... the I heart Obama wave. And it's happening all over the world...
And it made me think of something I'd read weeks ago in David Brooks' fantastic piece on Obama's temperament as it relates to the Presidency:
"Some candidates are motivated by something they lack. For L.B.J., it was respect. For Bill Clinton, it was adoration. These politicians are motivated to fill that void. Their challenge once in office is self-regulation. How will they control the demons, insecurities and longings that fired their ambitions?
But other candidates are propelled by what some psychologists call self-efficacy, the placid assumption that they can handle whatever the future throws at them. Candidates in this mold...are driven upward by a desire to realize some capacity in their nature. They rise with an unshakable serenity that is inexplicable to their critics and infuriating to their foes.
They say we are products of our environments, but Obama, the sojourner, seems to go through various situations without being overly touched by them. Over the past two years, he has been the subject of nearly unparalleled public worship, but far from getting drunk on it, he has become less grandiloquent as the campaign has gone along.
When Bill Clinton campaigned, he tried to seduce his audiences. But at Obama rallies, the candidate is the wooed not the wooer. He doesn’t seem to need the audience’s love. But they need his. The audiences hunger for his affection, while he is calm, appreciative and didactic."
Well. Here's how the world is trying to woo President Obama. Already!
L'Amour from Le France: Let's start with the French (who have been mad at us ever since that time when some chose to call fried strips of potatoes "Freedom Fries" rather than "French Fries"--how stoopid was that?!):
"Obama-mania" à la française has swept all corners of the populace. "Obama is a model we can grasp" is the way Zachary James Miller, an Obama fan in Paris, explains the astonishing affection shown by the French, presenting Obama not just as a representative for minorities, but as a messenger of "hope for everyone." [1]
"All across the political spectrum, from right to left, the French are marvelling at American's new dawn. It's no surprise that President Nicolas Sarkozy -- derided by the opposition as "Sarko, the American" -- anticipated Obama's success, even as diplomatic advisers allegedly still counted on his opponent winning the Democratic primary: "I never believed Hillary Clinton would win," said Sarkozy before boldly declaring, "Obama is my buddy." [2]
From Rue89: "This time the world says thank you to America."
From Le Monde: "What intelligence, what mastery, what sang-froid..."
From Jack Lang, a long-serving culture minister under the late President Mitterrand: "The America that we love is back. This election will have the effect of an electric shock and will bring about a spiritual revolution."
From our British Relatives Across the Pond:
"Today is for celebration, for happiness and for reflected human glory. Savour those words: President Barack Obama, America's hope and, in no small way, ours too." [3]
From Al-Jazeera:
“Now we have an American administration that wants to save itself and learn from the mistakes of its predecessors in order to save its country and people.”
From the Daily Nation in Kenya:
“Shortly after CNN declared Obama the winner just before 7am (Kenya time) on Wednesday, President Kibaki announced that Kenyans will on Thursday take a day off to mark the historic election of Obama to the most powerful office on earth.”
From El Universal in Venezuela:
“On this day of hope, president Hugo Chávez, on behalf of the Venezuelan people, congratulates the people of the United States and president-elect Barack Obama for the important victory he has attained… In Simon Bolivar’s homeland, we are convinced that time has come to establish new relations between our countries, and with our region, based on the principles of sovereignty, equality, and true cooperation.”
From Obama, Japan:
A sleepy fishing village named Obama (which means "little beach" in Japanese) celebrates Obama's victory:
See what I mean now about having as our President the world's most "money" Front-Man? And how lucky we are to have him?
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