A poll made by Gallup about who the world’s citizens would choose if they could have voted in the American elections showed a smashing victory for Obama – 3 in 4 people would vote for him. McCain would only win in Georgia, Laos and Cambodia (due to more or less obvious reasons).

65% of the citizens in 14 different European countries consider the US elections relevant to their own country, with this number rising to 80% among the British, 77% of the Irish or 71% of the Norwegian and French citizens. 83% of the Japanese, a higher percentage of people than in America itself (80%) followed the American Presidential campaign closely.

In Europe, 74% of the Dutch and Portuguese[i], 71% of the Norwegians, 69% of the Danish, 67% of the Irish, 64% of the Swedish and French, 60% of the U.K. electors, 62% of the Germans, 4 in 5 Finns and Greeks and 3 in 4 Spanish or Italians would vote for Obama. In the rest of the world, he was also the favourite for 64% of Australians, 66% of Japanese and 67% of Canadians, 76% of Ethiopians and Tanzanians, 89% of Kenyans, 70% of Malians and 85% of the Ugandans who answered the poll.

During the eight years of the Bush Administration, the favourable opinion about the US decreased dramatically in Germany and Spain (less than one-third of the population has a favourable opinion), fell from 80% to 53% in the UK and from 78% to 50% in Japan. More than 33 million Americans saw Obama’s infomercial aired in primetime and "The Daily Show" had record ratings of 3.6 million viewers with Obama’s appearance. 

The election of Obama is symbolic in many ways. The first African-American to be the President of the most powerful nation on Earth means, in itself, quite a bit of History has been made, representing the symbolic transposition of great mental, cultural, historic and prejudice barriers. But Obama seems to concentrate hopes in almost every continent: in the Spanish-speaking South America and Brazil the newspapers announce that Cuba is hopeful that a new era in its foreign relations with the US will be possible.

And this hope extends to the whole of South America as Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile or Argentina would also have voted for Obama, who gets the sympathy of the people facing the paramilitary and guerrilla groups which McCain helped to finance. While Europeans wish for more dialogue and diplomacy, a solution for the situation in Zimbabwe is anticipated with the election of Obama, or at least the possibility of developing very special and involved diplomatic relations with Africa.   

In Asia people seem to care less about the American elections, still Obama was more popular in India, China and South Korea (nowadays the country with a more favourable opinion about the US – 70%). In the Middle East, Lebanon and Palestine favoured Obama, while Israel doesn’t know what to think – many people in Israel would have voted for McCain, but the majority of the US Jewish community and pro-Israel lobby would vote for Obama, according to the polls.

Curiously, and still about the votes by the American citizens (the ones that counted, right?), the organization Sentency Project informed that 5,2 million Americans were not allowed to vote in the election – 1 in every 41 Americans – because they committed some type of severe crime. These citizens cannot vote currently or permanently (in Virginia or Kentucky all the people condemned for severe crimes lose the right to vote for their entire lives). From those 5,2 millions, 4 million are not in prison anymore, but on parole or have already completed their sentences, and 1,4 million are black men.                                                              

The definition of “severe crime” varies much from State to State and is not necessarily related with firearm robbery and physical threat, white-collar crimes, murder or sex offences. Generally, “severe crimes” are the ones which lead to a sentence of more than one year in jail, and can be related with things like planting some vases of marijuana in the backyard. After completing their sentences, many of these people simply move to another State and don’t go back to their State of origin to ask a judge for their right to vote again (in the cases in which they could do so, of course). 

But these elections marked a profound change in the way how the electors interact with the campaign actors and contents as well. Millions of electors obtained information about the candidates through the internet, and they often added original content and opinion to that online soup. Some of them are directly were thrown to the centre of the debates and received media attention, depending on the originality of their efforts. On the other hand, comedians assumed an informative and pedagogical role, something which was deeply ironic and… surely fun.

The candidates adapted their speeches, schedules and answers to these new phenomena, and McCain-Palin tried to please or glue themselves to comedians while disdaining the “liberal media elite” (well, they disdained the comedians too, at first). In most cases, the entertainers glued themselves to a certain candidate first, and assumed that choice clearly before the nation, while treating both with “comic impartiality”. Jon Stewart, Ellen, Saturday Night Live/Tina Fey, Letterman, Leno, O’Brien or Ferguson, they all had important roles in this campaign. So had the media lady Oprah. Or W. the film. Or the books concerning Bush Doctrine.

Interviews and deep scrutiny by top comedians, vote hunting through internet social networks, incentives to election registration and participation by… the comedians too, thousands of home videos on YouTube expressing opinions (from around the world) and political sympathies or denouncing true and fake scandals, news and conspiracy theories, phenomena like Obama Girl and Joe the Plumber (not to mention Tito the Builder) mark a modification in the nature of the campaigns, sometimes for the better/more democratic, some others for the sillier.

The candidates asked their supporters to contact people from their region or ethnic group by phone, e-mail and door-to-door, to have a conversation about the elections with their friends, to vote early, to take other people to vote. The world is positively impressed with Obama. Is the world hoping too much? He certainly can not do magic – Jon Stewart underlined that already.

The world is craving for dialogue, peace and disillusioned with most politicians. The world is in the hands of common people, people who may not come from privileged backgrounds and are equal in rights independently of those backgrounds – that’s maybe what Obama symbolizes for many. A more participative and inclusive democracy is already his victory. Let’s see about the rest, expect for the better, express ourselves often about what happens and what we think should happen.