I'm not a US citizen, not an ex-US citizen, not even interested in becoming a US citizen. I've never been to the US. I'm assured by my wife that it really exists, but I think there is a chance that the whole country is in fact faked in a film studio in Kazahkstan.
My alien credentials established, I'd like to say something. Feel free to discard my irrelevant rantings if you wish, but I'm going to attempt a contribution nevertheless.
Obama's inevitable candidacy has not yet made the news cycle here in the rest of the world. The story is one of Primaries ("whatever that might be") and Caucuses ("whatever they are") in an election campaign lasting over a year. Just to put that in context, in the UK and here in Australia the election can be called by the ruling party at any time during the term of the Parliament (usually when the ruling party is doing well in the polls, or the upper house is blocking some vital piece of legislation) and the election generally lasts three, four or five weeks. So the media has an uphill battle convincing people that there is even an election going on in the US. Tell them that most of the interest is currently in the election campaign for candidates from the same party and you've lost the narrative. Lose the narrative and you lose the story. Lose the story, and you lose the media.
That said, they're about to wake up, and the world will be watching the matchup between Obama and Bush Lite very closely indeed.
This will be a statement from the US to the rest of the world, no mistake about it. The candidacy of a young, progressive, brilliant orator who is not a white man will fill all the world with awe. I confidently predict that the reputation of the US will be lifted enormously simply through watching this man speak during the election campaign. Were he to win the presidency, there will be a worldwide shout that will be heard even in the darkest pits of Texas.
The colonial era is dead more than half a century but many of the echoes of that time are still felt, not least of which is in the Middle East. The third world simplifies the world order into rich white folks on top, poor non-white folks on the bottom.
Overturn that world view and the world will look on America with fresh eyes, and see something marvelous.