After his epochal Presidential victory over Mitt Romney, Barack Obama has been hailed across the US media. Broadsheets like New York Times had “Obama’s Night” splashed on its front page, Washington Post had a simpler headline that said “Obama Wins”, Chicago Tribune kept it simpler with “Re-elected” as a headline, Los Angeles Times had “Obama Again” and Miami Herald had an emphatic “It’s Obama”.
The European press was equally jubilant about Obama’s ticket to a second-term as President. In Paris, the left-leaning tabloid Liberation ran a full-page photo of a smiling Obama on its cover, with the headline, in English: “Yes!”.
UK’s Guardian had a sardonic take on Romney’s defeat with a headline “Olympic levels of Schadenfreude” and said “The London Olympics went rather better than Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign”. The paper was referring to Romney’s visit to London during the Olympics and making comments that the city is not ready for the Games. Germany’s Bild-Zeitung read, in English: “Yes he can again.”
And in Asia-Pacific, Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald expressed its pleasure over Obama’s re-election with an article titled “Analysis: Result a relief for Australia”. “Obama’s return comes with renewed focus on region,” senior correspondent Daniel Filton, writes: “BREATHE a sigh of relief, Australia—had Mitt Romney won the day, it would have made for an ugly time with our big alliance partner. Barack Obama, by contrast, will now be judged in his second term on a pledge to ‘pivot’ America’s attention to this neighbourhood.”
South Korea reacted to the news ambivalently since it has its own presidential election on November 19. A Yonhap news service article quoted Chun Chae-sung, a professor of international relations at Seoul National University as follows, “In terms of future relations between Korea and the U.S., what’s more important is who will take the presidential office in Korea, rather than a foreign-policy direction by the Obama second term.”
In India, Obama’s win was met with trepidation over its baneful impact on the IT outsourcing industry. iGate CEO Phaneesh Murthy said: “(the win is) not the best news for India or the IT outsourcing industry. However, we need to understand how much of the election rhetoric continues into 2013 and that will determine the full implications to us. The concern over the deficit and jobs will continue (in the US) and in my mind, will force the sluggishness to remain in the economy”.
In his column in the Indian Express, C Raja Mohan said “Obama’s return should prompt Delhi to think big about bilateral ties with Washington” and that “unlike in the past, when the US severely constrained Delhi’s strategic space in the regions to the west and east of India, Obama’s Af-Pak and East Asian policies have opened extraordinary geopolitical opportunities for India”. The financial daily Mint was more circumspect about Obama’s win, “The US president’s ability to effect change will be checked by harsh realities... A middle of the road bargain that does not shift the economic equilibrium decisively is likely.”
