Ummm... it's 6:45 AM Cairo time

...and I'm looking at 51 49 in Delaware.

51 49?

Are you f-ing kidding me?

We won the state by 60%

It was looking a bit close, but I'll admit that I had been partying much of the night with a bunch of Americans and several amused and delighted foreign friends.

Or just visiting?

:hi:

Was just visiting, and voted before I left.

You know how travel guides always tell you not to "stand out" as an American when you are in dicey places? Well, I didn't take that advice and wore my Obama shirt in Egypt and Thailand on this trip, and people would go out of their way just to smile, say hello, and shake my hand.

I have to believe that the tremendous goodwill that Obama has around the world is likely to translate into phenomenal negotiating leverage.

Consider yourself the leader of a country where more of your own population likes the US president more than they like you.

The only unfortunate part of the trip was that I apparently left Thailand a few days too early. I'd have preferred to have been stuck there during the airport closure. The PAD/PPP conflict there is a subject for another post, but a primarily Buddhist culture has interesting ways of addressing conflict. The PAD has occupied the Government House for a while now, and one of the proposals being considered for dealing with it is, "Let's build another one."

Buddhism is a system of belief and action that seems to be built around a passive-aggressive complex.