Election 2008

Salzburg is rejoicing. The sun shone through my window this morning and the temperature reached almost 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Barrak Obama is the next president of the United States of America and Salzburg is rejoicing.

I admit it was a little strange being in another country during such a historic presidential election. The year America elected a minority to it’s highest office. The legacy of wealthy, white male presidents has ended, for now. It was sort of nice not having the campaign propaganda forced on me these past weeks and not having to listen to each political party bash the other. It’s not that I’ve been completely out of the loop but just enough. I kept up with the latest news on CNN.com and have had a few political chats with friends and fellow classmates. The people here are well educated on American politics and I feel ignorant for not knowing more about the world. It was the same when I visited China in 2005. Frequently the locals questioned us about Bush and our government. I must have chatted with a man for almost 30 minutes about our policies and by the end of the conversation I had no idea what he was talking about. So I guess I may be a little ignorant about my own government.

Last night I attended a presentation on campus about the U.S. Presidential Election. Sponsored by the university’s political science students, the room was full. Birgit invited me to come because she thought I may be interested, and I was. The presentation included several youtube clips, both serious and funny, and then ended with coverage of the election from an Austrian news station. The youtube clips were in English and easily understood. The news report, however, was in German so I didn’t quite catch all of it. I did comprehend though, that Obama seemed to be the favorite.

A little nervous before I fell asleep last night, I finally dozed off. It’s so strange being in another country during this historic election. I didn’t feel like staying up late to find out the results, so I checked the news one more time and decided to get some sleep and wake eagerly the next morning. It was a little like Christmas Eve when I was a child. I slept peacefully until about 4:30 a.m. when my phone rang. I got up startled, grabbed my phone and saw my friend Steph’s name on the screen. I knew then that Obama had won because she told me she’d be at our favorite bar watching the coverage all night. Let me remind you she’s from England. I didn’t answer because I was tired and I knew what she wanted to tell me, so I fell back to sleep. When I awoke this morning, even though I knew the results, I still got out of bed eagerly to check the coverage on the internet. Obama had won.

Salzburg is rejoicing and so is the world. The cover of the local paper reads, So verändert Obama die Welt (Obama changes the world), with a caption underneath reading, Keine Wahl bewegte Amerika und die Welt so wie diese (no election has made as much of a difference in America and the world as this one). This election was not only important to America, it was important to the world.

When you grow up in our country, you know it’s great, you know we’re powerful, and big. You know we have opportunities that many countries do not. But when you’re looking at America from the outside, it’s so different. I knew my country impacted the world, as do all the countries of the world. But I didn’t know the extent of our influence until now. Yesterday Steph and I were talking about the election and she admitted to me that she could probably name more U.S. Presidents than top officials in the history of England. Later on the way to campus, Birgit starting talking about Al Gore and John Kerry, the democratic nominees from the past two U.S. Elections who didn’t make the presidency. How many Americans know who lost the last Austrian election, or even the name of their current leader? I’m guessing not many.