By Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Green with envy I was, upon receiving the text message a friend sent me from an exclusive reserved section during Barack Obama’s post-election gathering at Chicago’s Grant Park.

But an e-mail from a different friend the next morning, which began "Greetings from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia," trumped it. And after hearing that friend recount how he celebrated the election of our nation’s first bi-racial president, I’m convinced the best place to do it was overseas.

My friend, an air cargo executive from Kansas City visiting Malaysia for a convention, was feeling the excitement of the world. The convention drew business people from many countries, and many were obsessively keeping tabs on the U.S. election throughout the day. Those with Blackberry’s kept others updated as results came in, offering thumbs up and mouthing things like, "He just took Florida," during work sessions.

Then came the culminating moment when he was ushered toward a TV where others had gathered to watch Obama’s speech. Here is how he described the scene in the e-mail:

"A wildly diverse crowd of about 60 people were raptly watching and listening to a newly minted American president. You could have heard a pin drop. Smiles prevailed all around, and when Obama finished, the African businessman standing in front of me turned around, his cheeks traced with tears. He’d heard my colleague and me speaking and gathered my nationality. He looked me in the eye and said, ’I love you, I love America. Congratulations.’ Now (recognized as) an American, I received congratulatory messages, handshakes and a few hugs - including most unexpectedly one from a Moslem woman in hair-covering. A German man told me ’It’s like we have all won.’ "

That pretty much says it. The world is now looking to the United States with hope.

It is a grace period, but not much of one. For as disenchanted and outright angered as much of the world has been with Bush administration foreign policy, they are now awaiting significant change from an Obama administration. And that realistically will not come quickly. Just as Obama’s election did not magically end all racism, neither can his tenure in office immediately repair the U.S. image globally. And, no doubt, Obama will likely make missteps.

And that is why I especially appreciate the understated wisdom of my world-traveling friend. He believes that in the eyes of the rest of the world, the election means a new start for the U.S., nothing more and nothing less. Obama’s election will offer a chance of reconciliation with the rest of a world wearied by the either-with-us-or-against-us bravado of the Bush administration.

My friend has worked in 54 countries. He is unabashedly a Democrat. In fact, he has a penchant for starting debates wherever he goes, be it a coffee shop in suburban Kansas City or at a convention several time zones from his Midwestern home.

"I’ve found myself not infrequently apologizing for the conduct of an administration unfit to represent the nobility of the American people at large," he says. He has been punched in the face in Jordan and spit upon in Switzerland, both incidents ungraceful rejoinders to U.S. foreign policy. "We are a lot more noble than our most visible representatives have shown us during the last few years," he says. I agree.

Still, it would be easy to make too much of this moment in American history, and indeed some already have done so. Not to take anything away from the tears of Oprah Winfrey, or the many other African Americans who felt immense pride at Obama’s triumph, but it is dangerous to pack too much meaning to one man’s election without seeing what follows. Obama’s election is indeed a racial milestone. But whether it is remembered for more than that is yet to be written. Now he has to begin to lead.

And as the scene at that Malaysian hotel showed, much of the world, for now at least, is offering him well wishes as they await his first policy decisions.

As my friend commented, "It’s the benefit of the doubt, and that may be enough."

To reach Mary Sanchez call 816-234-4752 or send e-mail to .
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