SWEDEN

SWEDEN

Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm, Nov. 12: Is the South’s long period of political sway in the U.S. over? Political experts are now posing that question after (Barack) Obama conquered the White House without winning over the American South.

If this is true, it is a real shift of an era. Since the foundation of the republic, American politics has circled around those states where slavery was permitted during the 1800’s. Despite the defeat in the civil war — or maybe thanks to it — it has been impossible to build successful election coalitions without the states south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Carter and Clinton

Like International Herald Tribune pointed out in an article from Alabama yesterday: The only two successful Democratic candidates in the past few decades have both been from the southern states: Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

But with Obama’s triumph, which ironically enough represents Republican (Abraham) Lincoln’s state, there is now talk about the end of “the Southern strategy.”

He mirrors a demographic development that shifts power from old white southerners to young, blacks and Latin Americans in other, more dynamic parts of the country.

BRITAIN

The Observer, London, Nov. 9: Until the moment victory was declared, the proposition that Barack Hussein Obama would become the 44th President of the United States seemed somehow remote. He was an unlikely candidate, partly because he lacked experience and partly because he spent much of his childhood abroad. But mainly because he is black.

It says much about the virtues of U.S. democracy that Mr. Obama could even have been nominated. But it says much more about perceptions of American democracy abroad that so many doubts prevailed for so long about the final outcome.

Seeing is believing

On every traditional measure, victory for the Democratic candidate was assured. But the world would not believe it until it saw it.

Contrary to many predictions, race did not dominate the campaign. But it filled the gap between what Americans said they intended to do and what the rest of the world feared they would do.

A single election will not heal American social divisions, nor will it stop America pursuing its interests overseas, with military power if necessary. But by choosing as their leader a man whose grandfather was a Kenyan goatherder and who shares a middle name with the grandson of the Prophet Mohamed, Americans have made it harder for their enemies to portray them as a nation of bigots.

Mr. Obama will have a difficult enough job serving the broad coalition of Americans who actually voted for him, without trying to honour the title of World President that exuberant global fans have conferred on him.

But the challenges that lie ahead should not detract from the optimism that is felt in America and around the world at the result of last week’s election.

ISRAEL

Jerusalem Post, Nov. 6: The challenges facing President-elect Barack Obama are formidable.

Even with so much on his plate, there’s no avoiding the Middle East — either because some flare-up will demand his attention, or because of the alluring temptation to go down in history as the president who finally — finally — brokered the deal that gave the Palestinian Arabs a state and delivered Israel from decades of terrorism.

Obama’s secretary of state may feel drawn to fast-track the Israel-Syria peace negotiations, seeing a deal there as low-hanging fruit.

Peacemaking reality

But we think Obama can be smarter than his predecessors by homing in on this harsh Middle East peacemaking reality: As long as the Islamic Republic of Iran remains on the ascendant, there will be no peace between Israel and the Palestinians, no way to bolster Palestinian moderates by chipping away at the rejectionists, no treaty with Syria, and no prospect of saving Lebanon.

So rather than going down the fruitless path taken by many of his predecessors, Obama might want to begin with a different set of assumptions:

Since 1979, the chief obstacle to peace in the Middle East has been Iran. Break its stranglehold, and you pave the way toward progress on all peace-making fronts.

What matters is what America talks to Iran about and the environment in which “unconditional” talks take place.

The talks need to be aimed at persuading Iran to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons. But talking is not an end itself. ... Bilateral talks between Washington and Teheran need to be accompanied by draconian sanctions led by the U.S. and EU; and the threat of the military option if all else fails must be more than perfunctory.

Whatever (Obama’s) game plan, if he wants to help foster the normalized relations Israel seeks with its Arab neighbors his administration will first have to sideline the region’s number-one obstacle to peace.

LEBANON

Daily Star, Beirut, Nov. 6: The election of Barack Obama as America’s first black president has instantly thrown decades of assumptions about that country and how it will behave into a state of suspended animation. Not for the first time, the Western world’s original revolutionary republic has decided to reinvent itself during an era of crisis.

For all his inspiring experiences and masterful oratory, however, Obama remains a single mortal tasked with some of the most intimidating challenges ever left for someone entering the Oval Office. And meeting all the expectations heaped on him — both at home and abroad — will not simply be a matter of reversing the disastrous course set by his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Enormous influence

Especially in the Middle East, therefore, no miracles should be expected. An entire subculture operates within the American political arena, and although it is widely known as the “Israel” or “Jewish” lobby, it represents neither U.S. nor Israeli interests, only those of far-right ultra-Zionists, and its influence on American views of the region is enormous.

We know America 4.0 is in the making, and we know that it will forever be associated with Barack Obama. What we do not know includes virtually everything else. Following one of the worst leaders of modern times allows plenty of room for improvement, but it also means negotiating a minefield of hotspots in which a single misstep can make matters even worse.