Obama Headlines From Around the World

Israeli leaders congratulate Obama on presidential victory (Jerusalem Post, Israel)
“President Shimon Peres reiterated what he had said to Obama when he was in Israel, that the best thing he could do for Israel was ‘to be a great president of the United States of America.’ A president, he went on, should be ‘on the side of peace.’”

Courtesy of Newseum

The Resurrection of the American Dream (Der Spiegel, Germany)
“Obama's tone embraces people, it doesn't exclude them. It's a tone of political romanticism. It doesn't solve problems, but it lessens the pain. Where Bush stoked fear, Obama spreads calm. The tone itself only accounts for half of his success, though. The surroundings determine whether it resonates. In the self-satisfied, successful America of the 1990s, Obama's tone would have been dismissed as too soft and too quiet.”

In Kenya, a holiday, song and dance for Obama (Daily Nation, 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.”

Analysis: Barack Obama's victory is head-spinning stuff (The Times, Britain)
“The country regarded loftily by many Europeans as hopelessly racist has voted to be ruled by a black man.”

In Selma, tears of joy (Toronto Star, Canada)
“There'll be a black man in the White House come Jan. 20 and he won't be the janitor, the butler or the baker.”

Bush & Co. to the dustbin of history? (Al-Jazeera)
“The change that will sweep US politics and its future identity will not stop at US borders but it will also be exported to the outside and will definitely reach the Arab region which has been tightly closed to all currents of democracy and political and economic reforms…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.”

McCain's Last Tango (Handelsblaat)
"No country for old men: Election night was a first class burial for John McCain. His catch-up attempt was unsuccessful—he was never able to free himself of the Republican party straight-jacket. It had turned the POW into a POGOP—Prisoner of the Good Old Party. McCain and his fellow Republicans failed (to address the) greatest challenge of the day: the financial crisis."

…And a prank for the ages:

Bush to cancel the election, declare a state of emergency and extend his term in office (Elaph.com, London)
“[President Bush] called an emergency joint session of congress to suspend the outcome of the presidential election, citing grave national security threats that would result from the election of Senator Barack Obama as president.”