America's star is rising

With Barack's election, the world already is regarding the United States of America in a new light we have not seen or experienced in many years. Having lived abroad twice and traveled extensively, I am elated the world is responding so positively to his election as president.

When Kathie and I lived in Germany in the 1980's with Ronald Reagan as president, we learned how Europeans liked Americans as individuals, yet sometimes disagreed with our government and its policies. Fortunately, that improved during the Clinton era, but in the dark days of the Bush II presidency, nations came to despise us, yet most of the Americans has no understanding of why they disliked us so intensely.

NPR aired a BBC call-in show on Wednesday, during which people from such disparate places as Kenya, Sierra Leone, Jamaica, Afghanistan, India and Germany all phoned it. Nearly everyone was euphoric about the United States' vote to elect Obama. The Economist roundly endorsed Obama last week and ran a worldwide "Electoral College," which acclaimed Obama with open arms.

America's star is rising again and he isn't even in office yet. The optimism I feel here seems to be shared by people all over the world. It's a great time to be American and a great time to be a citizen of the world.