Obama Election and World Newspapers Response
Euphoria Over U.S. Election Results Begin to Take on a Sober Tone
Nov 8, 2008
Obama's election as the next president of the United States was met with exuberance followed by evidence within a few days that the global honeymoon was over. From Australia, to Canada, England, Germany, India,Israel newspapers, among others, began to doubt that "Yes, We Can" meant that the president-elect actually was prepared for the job.
International Doubters
Obama's qualifications to be the next president of the United States began to be questioned, according to the Chicago Tribune (11/6/08), within 48-hours after the polls closed showing he had won handily.
- Times of London in England expressed the belief that anyone believing Obama would meet the world's lofty expectations "will be disappointed." The Daily Telegraph said that "expectations are so insanely high and the reality both at home and abroad are so intractable in the short or even medium term, that this is administration that cannot but disappoint."
- Toronto Star of Canada told its readers not to expect too much attention from the new U.S. president because he would be distracted by an "economic crisis, a debt mountain, two wars and making good on health and education reforms."
- Moscow Times reminded it readers that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev barely mentioned Obama in his state-of-the-nation address, reflecting the icy relations between the two countries.
- Jerusalem Post wrote: "Obama's electoral success was built on insistent light and optimism--on that empowering 'Yes, we can!" mantra... which will be offset by the outmaneuvering, deterring...malicious global forces that peddle darkness and misery, who are sneering to themselves, 'No, you can't."
- Sydney Hearld of Australia reminded readers that another brilliant young newcomer, Abraham Lincoln of Ilinois, came to the White House "amid times" of great national tribulation."
- Times of India stayed with the general theme of Obama as an impressive but thoroughly untested commodity.
- Berliner Zeitung noted that before Obama can even take his first steps, he has already been backed into a corner by Moscow as it threatens the America militarily and that any compromise with Medvedev from the U.S. would look like weakness.
While there are newspapers such as the Financial Times Deutscland in Germany which is more positive about Obama's success as the first Black president of the United States, even it tempers its hopes that he will approach the structural changes he wants slowly and if he can clarity these values, he may succeed. In addition, Die Tageszeitung notes that Obama did promise to solve the U.S.'s problems in a pragmatic way and that was he was elected to do. It is obvious that the international press is watching Obama closely and successes or failures will be duly noted.
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