All I need to know about America I learn on Swiss Radio/TV

Europe is OBSESSED with the US election. Completely obsessed. There's more coverage of the election and economy here on TV and radio than I remember at home (at least we don't have the campaign ads, though!). I can hear info in English on BBC, in Swiss-German on the radio, and in German, French and Italian on other TV channels.

It's weird. For example I'll be listening to a Kid Rock song on the radio (the one that mentions Michigan-funny), the song ends and the Swiss-German-speaking DJ comes on to give the news and it's all "blah,blah-Barack Obama-blah,blah-John McCain-blah, blah, blah, General Motors-blah, blah-Fannie Mae-blah, blah, blah" I can't understand the German part, but I clearly hear the American names. When was the last time you can remember hearing about another country's election on American TV or radio?

We Americans live in a bubble (and I like it that way), and what goes on in other places doesn't really affect us that much. But, to other countries, America is NEWS. What happens there affects the whole world. All of Europe is watching this election so closely. They can't stand Bush here and are completely behind Obama. My friend here said she hopes for our sake Obama wins because other wise the US will be a laughing stock to the world for sticking with Bush's party. I'm not particularly fond of either candidate, but that's a pretty meaningful statement from someone from outside of America and I think that is what will happen, at least in Europe.

So, I'll either stay up really late or get up early to see the election results. The reporters will probably be speaking another language, but at least percentages look the same in every language! I'm pretty sure that if Obama wins, there will be celebration rallies all over Europe. Weird.