It would be hard to overstate how fervently vast stretches of the globe wanted the election to turn out as it did to repudiate the Bush administration and its policies. Poll after poll in country after country showed only a few — Israel, Georgia, the Philippines — favoring a victory for Senator John McCain. Full Story »
Posted by Kaizar Campwala
A very impressive collaboration went into reporting this piece. The diversity of sources is excellent -- from army generals to novelists to lawyers. The writing was stylish but fair. The author quoted skeptics and supporters equally, and backed their input with level-headed analysis. A very good read, what I expected to see today from the Times.
Francis Nyamnjoh, a Cameroonian novelist and social scientist, said he saw Mr. Obama less as a black man than “as a successful negotiator of identity margins.” His ability to inhabit so many categories mirrors the African experience. Mr. Nyamnjoh said that for America to choose as its citizen in chief such a skillful straddler of global identities could not help but transform the nation’s image, making it once again the screen upon which the hopes and ambitions of the world are projected.
Wonderfully put by this Cameroonian novelist. I would like to hear more from him.
What would this story have sounded like if McCain had won the election? Wow.