The Hook

From the blogger of Egyptian Chronicles in Cairo:

Just like everyone, the Egyptian people watched the 2008 American elections more than any elections that I can recall.

Maybe it was because of the huge media attention or because of the U.S troops in Iraq. Maybe it was the fear that the war may extend to another country, or because American-Egyptian relations are not that good.

The race was interesting from the beginning, and many watched it extensively thanks to the internet and the satellite news channels. The “average Mohamed” sees no difference between McCain and Obama. In the end they are both Israel-friendly and biased. The Arab-Israeli conflict still plays a very important role here.

Still, people preferred Obama over McCain; they knew that McCain is a Republican neocon.

I asked many people from different ages and backgrounds, from a lady in her 70s who still listens to BBC Arabic radio service, to a 16-year-old boy who watched the debates. Obama is favoured in general with hopes that he would win. After all, he is ready to sit down with the Iranians and to get out of Iraq, so he isn’t that bad despite his support for Israel.

People here know he is a Christian, but they hated how the GOP used his Islamic roots negatively. That showed that McCain is no different from Bush in his policy or his hate, as some told me, for Islam and Arabs.

Most people and newspapers expected that Obama would win, especially after the economic crisis. But some people believed that anything could happen and the neocons would use their influence in McCain’s favour. Maybe they would manipulate votes (many remember Florida), or stage a sudden so-called terrorist Al Qaida attack. Or turn to the fearful scenario of assassinating Obama.

To be honest, some were skeptical at first that Obama would win. But soon the black horse was the winning horse. He made it to the end and he won in a historical vote, breaking all the records.

Egyptians in general are happy, especially the young people who followed his campaign online since day one. They compared the huge difference between the elections in the States and in Egypt. Some of them stayed home yesterday to watch the full coverage on news networks like BBC Arabic and Al Jazeera. It is not surprising, since Obama has Egyptian groups on Facebook.

Now the Egyptians hope that Obama would really do what he promised and that time will not come and they will curse him just like the previous American presidents.