“Everybody loves the guy and sometimes I just don’t understand why,” Hovig joked. Yet it is true — people are enamoured with Obama for a variety of reasons that can’t be rationalised, given his lack of experience.

Striding across a New York avenue, Claire, my American friend from Florida who works at a consulting firm, explained, “There is really no substantial difference between Clinton and Obama in policies except on healthcare.” “I wasn’t sure whom I was supporting,” she admitted, “until I heard Obama’s speech on race.” It was the March speech in which Obama spoke openly about inter-racial tensions in America. “Anyone who can talk about race in America in these terms in front of the whole country,” she said matter-of-factly, “really deserves to be president.”

In Rhode Island at a dinner for my brother’s graduation, I heard the young graduate sitting opposite me talk about Obama. An American, she speaks Arabic and has studied and worked in Egypt. “In Egypt,” she said, “people hated America because of the war. But after Obama became a candidate, people would hear I was American and cheer ‘Obama!’” The way people in foreign countries think about America, she thinks, would change if Obama were to become president. And given Obama’s willingness to hold diplomatic talks in Iran and the Middle East, America’s approach to the world would hopefully change as well.

Later that evening, a distinguished looking man in his late sixties told me he was an old friend and supporter of the Clintons. He was the ambassador in London under Bill Clinton. Now, he is the chairman of a company and on the board of Morgan Stanley and a handful of other companies. Inevitably, I asked him what he thinks about Obama.

... contd.