If you want to get a sense of what Obama might mean for the rest of the world, rather than read offensive nonsense from Anne Applebaum in The Washington Post, read Dominique Moisi in the Financial Times. After noting that if the election were held in France, Obama would win in a landslide (here, too, Dominique), he writes:

Whatever the result of this November’s US presidential election – and it is impossible to predict today – one thing is certain: America, thanks to Mr Obama, has returned to be the emotional centre of gravity of the world, and this time not only in tragic terms as it was after September 11 2001, or in negative terms as during most of the George W. Bush years.