But elsewhere, people were praising Obama, 46, whose heavy emphasis on the Internet helped make him better known in more nations than perhaps any US primary candidate in history. In Kenya, Obama’s victory was greeted with unvarnished glee. In Kisumu, close to the home of Obama’s late father, hundreds crowded around televisions to watch Obama’s victory speech Wednesday morning, chanting “Obama tosha!” which translates as, “Obama is enough!”

Obama has strong support in Europe, the heartland of anti-Bush sentiment. “Germany is Obama country,” said Karsten Voight, the German government’s coordinator for German-North American cooperation. “He seems to strike a chord with average Germans,” who see him as a transformational figure such as John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King Jr.

For many, Obama’s skin colour is deeply symbolic. As the son of an African and a white woman from Kansas, Obama has the brownish “everyman” skin colour shared by hundreds of millions of people. “He looks like Egyptians. You can walk in the streets and find people who look like him,” said Manar el-Shorbagi, a specialist in US political affairs at the American University in Cairo.

In terms of foreign policy, Obama’s willingness to meet and talk with leaders of Iran, Syria and other nations shunned by the Bush administration has been both praised and criticised overseas.

In Israel, Gilboa said Obama’s openness to negotiating with Iran and Syria has contributed to the sense that his Middle East policies are too soft. When a leader of Hamas expressed a preference for Obama earlier this year, that turned off many Israelis even more. Many in Israel said they would have preferred Clinton, who is well regarded because of her support for the Jewish state in the Senate. Obama’s candidacy has generated suspicion among Palestinians as well. Ali Jarbawi, a political scientist at the West Bank’s Birzeit University, said that even if Obama appears to be even-handed in his approach to the Middle East, he would never take on the pro-Israel lobby in Washington. “The minute Obama takes office, all his aides in the White House will start working on his re-election,” Jarbawi said. “Do you think Obama would risk his re-election because of us?”

... contd.