ST. LOUIS

You could see that plainly enough during Obama's campaign tour through Europe. Wherever the senator went he was met with throngs of adoring supporters, all hoping that this time Americans would elect the right man. Public opinion polls showed Obama trouncing John McCain by wide margins in every European country. In France, Italy, and Germany he led by more than 50 percent. When the final tallies were in, the leader of France's ruling party proclaimed that "Americans have today chosen the American Dream." Not to be outdone, the leader of the centrist Mouvement Democrate called the election "a change that touches and affects the very conception one has of relations between men."

But what if Obama had lost? After all, he was certainly not up by 50 percent in the United States. It is safe to say that, just as in 2000 and 2004, there would be millions of very frustrated Europeans right now. Indeed, that frustration was already palpable before the election. In September, for example, Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian wrote: "If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift."

OLD WORLD FRUSTRATION

Europe's frustration is understandable. Because no matter how much attention Europeans pay to the American elections, they have no way of affecting them. They can turn out to cheer Obama, but they could not vote or even contribute money to him.