As most of the news reports say, the rest of the world is pretty happy about Obama being the president elect.  A lot of people here asked about the election and my thoughts about it.  I don’t want to get into the details, but I did want to describe the experience abroad: people are really optimistic.  This is the essence of the "myth" of America: anyone, no matter what color they are, or in what circumstances they are born, can go on to be president, get rich, or in general do whatever they want.  After 8 years of a guy who got where he is because of his dad, and who basically told the rest of the world to f*** off, people are thrilled to have a smart, capable guy as president elect.