Overseas like Obama because

(1) He aint Dubya

(2) Canada/Western Europe all don't have a leader as charismatic or larger than life or...unique. They all are bland. Hell even in the recent Israeli elections, people there bitched about the lame choices they had.

(3) In those same Democracies, none of them have as powerful or transformative minority politician that could seriously become the next Prime Minister or Chancellor or whatever by appealing both to those ethnic groups, but also to the whites as well. To put it another way, a good Obama metaphor for Germany would be a Turk, or in France be a North African Black or Arab*, and in UK be the blacks or Asians.

But alot of those fiercely nationalist cultural nations, like France who are proudly homogenous as white, Catholic, Francophiles...I just wonder how a minority candidate could ever prevail over that to win the prize. Still, a Turkish German Chancellor would be great, if as the final insult to Hitler's grave.

*=Well one of the socialist parties in France is led by an Arab-Franco, so that's something I guess.