LONDON, 4 June 2008 — Barack Obama’s triumph over Hillary Clinton triggered jubilation among his relatives in Kenya, hope among people around the world — and also a few questions about what this inspiring, charismatic politician actually stands for.
Obama rocketed from political obscurity to become the first black presidential nominee of a major US party on Tuesday when he locked up the 2,118 delegates he needed for victory at the August convention. Many expressed optimism that a November victory by the cosmopolitan Obama — a black American with relatives in Africa and childhood friends in Asia — would mark a major shift from the divisive and deeply unpopular administration of US President George W. Bush.
In Kenya, home to Obama’s family on his father’s side, the Kenya Times newspaper devoted its front page to the story, under the headline “Obama makes history.” “I’ve just watched him on television, and as a family we are very happy. Really, it is something that is a trendsetter,” the politician’s uncle, Said Obama, told The Associated Press from the port city of Kisumu in western Kenya.
In Mexico City, hairdresser Susan Mendoza’s eyes lit up when she learned Obama had clinched the nomination. “Bush was for the elite. Obama is of the people,” she said.
The excitement was less about Obama’s foreign policy — which remains vague — than a sense that his victory marks a historic moment. Michael Cox, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, said Obama’s win “has sent out a lot of positive signals around the world.” “He has a very appealing persona — elegant, fluent, strings lots of sentences together into paragraphs,” Cox said. “But in terms of (his) actual policies toward the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, China, Europe — actually, we don’t know.” That uncertainty did little to dampen enthusiasm for Obama.
The German government’s coordinator on US relations, Karsten Voigt, said many Germans “find (Obama’s) mixture of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy very attractive.”
In an editorial, the Times of London said Obama’s campaign “has rekindled America’s faith in its prodigious powers of reinvention — and the world’s admiration for America.”
In defeating Clinton, the 46-year-old Illinois senator entered a five-month campaign against Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a 71-year-old Vietnam prisoner of war and staunch supporter of the US-led campaign in Iraq.
Obama opposed the invasion and has called for an early troop withdrawal. He also has shown willingness to engage in dialogue with Iran, North Korea and Cuba — nations long isolated by the policies of Bush.
“He seems to be a peace lover,” said Ngo Van Hung, a Vietnamese real-estate salesman. “He would have a better understanding of how to treat people of different nationalities and different countries.”
Many Asians welcomed the selection of a candidate perceived as more aware of the world outside US borders than Bush. The son of a Kenyan father and a mother from the US state of Kansas, Obama spent several years of his childhood in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesians were rooting yesterday for the man they consider to be a hometown hero. Obama lived in the predominantly Muslim nation from age six to 10 with his mother and Indonesian stepfather and was fondly remembered by former teachers and classmates.
A Chinese scholar said that while he did not expect major changes in US foreign policy, an Obama White House would have a very different tone to a Bush one.
“He will bring new energy into America’s domestic politics and foreign policies,” said Zhu Feng, deputy director at the Center of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University in Beijing.
