Politics / die Politik

I am not a political person, and yet here I am writing my third blog of the week that is related to politics. I think my distaste for politics can be traced back to fifth grade. I was a student council representative, and that year the school children of Illinois were given the noble task of selecting the State Animal. I was assigned the role of campaign manager for the thirteen lined ground squirrel. The what? I knew right away that I was campaigning for a loser. A striped rat-like animal had no chance when running against the raccoon, the opossum, the white tailed deer, and the red fox. But, I made up flyers to hang around school and diligently came up with a campaign message to read over the school loud speaker, which I remember as if it were yesterday:

You may never have seen one,
and neither have I.
But you should vote
for this cute little guy.

I did not think the thirteen-lined ground squirrel was cute. Nor did I want to vote for it. I wanted to vote for the red fox, which was was actually very cute with a fluffy tail. I can't remember which I voted for, but I remember feeling conflicted about voting for the fox when I should have been voting for the squirrel. My vote didn't really matter in the end, whichever one it was, because the white-tailed deer ultimately won. And so began a long string of votes, a lifetime of votes, that didn't really matter up until the present day.

I never expected the US election to be such a lasting focus of everyone's attention over here. The newspaper continues to be filled with stories and cartoons and photographs. On Wednesday, the entire first section of the paper was devoted to the election and Obama. The political cartoonist for the Salzburger Nachrichten came up with this cartoon, entitled Obama has landed... (and yes, it was published in English in a German language newspaper).

And people want to talk about it, about America, about what a wonder of it all, as if talking to a real American will make it more real for them. A woman in my class from Iran was thrilled to learn that I was American, "The Obama victory!" she repeated over and over, smiling and smiling. Nikolas' teacher clasped her hands over her heart and bounced, "All I can say is, 'Wow! Wow! Wow!'" she said. Wow needs no translation from German to English.

And then the weekend paper arrived on our doorstep this morning with Obama, or the meaning of Obama, making the first page again. Are we all now American? asks the headline. The article begins by saying that in the last decade, the US had seen itself supported by the world after September 11, fallen into the place of being a political outcast, and then suddenly, after the election, becoming everyone's favorite nation once again.

The cartoon captures it all, I think. On the basketball is the word Erwartungen (expectations) and the basket is the word Möglichkeiten (possibilities). It awes me that one man and his vision can, truly, change the outlook of the world overnight.