Caucasus: Barack Obama Victory Reaction

Following the Barack Obama’s victory in yesterday’s U.S. presidential election, Unzipped says that there is the real possibility for change. The blog says that “with all its shortcomings, this was a huge democratic exercise.”

Over the last decade, and especially last years, US reputation fell down below the lowest possible denominator. It became a bad tone to say “I am American”. No longer. At least for now, for me it sounds more like a compliment. Now they may proudly say: “I am American”.

[…]

Expectations are so high of him that chances to get disappointed are very high too. Beginning of new era, or so I hope.

And despite there being a little more support for Obama’s rival, John McCain, in Georgia, Our Man in Tbilisi reports from an election party and says that many Georgians were behind the Democratic candidate.

Just got back from the election party at the Courtyard Marriott here in Tbilisi. I got there around 7, when Obama had around 208 electoral votes, and stayed until he’d given his speech about half an hour ago. […] A mock vote of those present resulted in something like a 73% win for Obama, and 19% for McCain, and actually the Georgians were the most vocal in their enthusiasm when another state was called for Obama. […]

Meanwhile, The View From Baku posts an account and video from the Hyatt Regency where the U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan invited American citizens to watch the election returns from yesterday’s presidential vote. The bloggers says the emotion was surprising and that many Azerbaijanis congratulated him on Barack Obama’s victory.

As I walked to work, Obama’s words, “all things are possible,” stuck with me. As I’ve come to realize during my time in Baku, all things are not possible in Azerbaijan. Not yet, anyway. When I arrived at work, one colleague after another congratulated me! I understood they were congratulating America. And as I talked with one young woman about the election this afternoon, she looked at me in all seriousness and said, “I would love to be in America.”

Interestingly, with Zbigniew Brzezinski warning that foreign policy issues will present Obama with “imminent problems,” The Occidental Weekly says that this might come in the shape of Russia which today accused the United States of being responsible for the recent war in Georgia.

The BBC reports that Russian President Dimtry Medvedev also used the occasion of his first state-of-the-nation address to announce the deployment of short-range missiles in the Baltics as well as promising not to “retreat in the Caucasus.”

Meanwhile, for other world reaction to the Obama victory, don’t forget to check out Global Voices and Reuters’ Voices Without Votes. I’ll also endeavor to round up more reaction from the South Caucasus for Global Voices when it hits the Internet.