Hopes Run High In Middle East For Obama

[babylonsister]

Hopes Run High In Middle East For Obama

by Peter Kenyon

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Morning Edition, December 23, 2008 · The Middle East will likely be a major foreign policy priority for the administration of Barack Obama. His election has generated high expectations — some say too high — that he can restore the image of the United States in the Arab world and that changes in Mideast policy are imminent.

Perhaps nothing better illustrates the low esteem in which President George W. Bush is held in the Middle East than the joyous embrace of Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at the president on his farewell visit to Baghdad.

The Jordanian parliament observed a moment of silence in honor of the insult. In Egypt, one man offered his daughter in marriage to Zeidi, while an Egyptian musician wrote lyrics lionizing the shoe-thrower. Shaaban Abdel Rahim previously released a song that expresses the hope that "Obama will be better than Bush."

In such an atmosphere, President-elect Obama already has restored a certain amount of goodwill toward the United States — simply by not being Bush.

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http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98607130

[Clio the Leo]

1. I am eagerly waiting for his first visit....

.... to see how he'll be greeted. This very notion is one of the reasons he got my vote.

(and also because he looks hot with his shirt off) :)

[opihimoimoi]

3. The Hapless GOP get to see the difference and DROOL...that all they can do

They had the op to do things...good things....but no...they had to be greedy and arrogant...made themselves and us look dirty....

Now, the World sings w us....

[firedupdem]

2. The reaction of the rest of world when Obama won the

election is a strong indicator of how we're viewed around the world. They are looking forward to the new administration and leadership of Obama as much as we are!