Obama's pick for White House chief crushes Arabs' hope for change?

While it was very obvious that the majority of muslims and arabs supported Obama whether because of his race, his name (Barack means "blessed" in Arabic and Hussein which means "handsome one"), or his hope of change in American politics, this dream seems to have been ashort-lived fiesta with Obama's appointment as White House chief of staff of Rahm Emanuel, a tough American with Israeli roots and sympathies.

Many people worldwide, especially Arabs, who were skeptical of American democracy because even though it has a significant big minority, all of its presidents were Anglo. With the elections of Obama however, those people are now are rubbing their eyes in disbelief. People in middle east say they are fed up with colonial white faces and want to end the US presense in Iraq. I think those people who think that becuase we got a president now who is not a "white face", the US foreign policy will change are dead wrong, for very obvious reasons.

What have we learned this election?

1. Barack Obama is the first northern Democrat to win since JFK.
2. When liberal democrats have run, they all have been beaten. When centrists have run, they have run. Obama seemed to have broken this rule.
3. Senators have viable again. For the past forty years, Americans have expected their presidental candidate to have some sort of executive experience. Ronald Reagan (California), Jimmy Carter (Georgia) and Bill Clinton (Arkansas) were governors. JFK was the last sitting senator to become president. But this year, the three strongest candidates - Mr Obama, Mr McCain and Hillary Clinton - were all senators.
4. Web-based social promiscuity is definitely the way forward. Facebook and MySpace were used with devastating effect by the Obama campaign. So, too, his own beautifully-designed website. Its organisational and money-making power were extraordinary and election-changing.
5. The veteran problem. Nobody doubts John McCain's remarkable story of wartime bravery. But does it help to be a hero?
   For the fifth election running, the candidate with the more heroic or convincing war record has lost. McCain against Obama.
   Kerry and Gore against Bush. Bob Dole against Bill Clinton and Bush Sr against Clinton.
6. Like John McCain, Barry Goldwater, the GOP presidential candidate in 1964, was an Arizonan senator, a former pilot, a maverick and a straight-talker. He commandeered a plane during the 1964 convention in San Francisco to buzz the convention below.
   Arizonan senators with a love of dare devil aeronautics and devil-may-care linguistics? Don't call us, we'll call you.

I like the connection between Obama-JFK and McCain-Goldwater. The more I read about it, the more it seem that everything is predestined.

Suddenly, it may be cool to be an American again?

Things may indeed be changing for good, at least for now. If you google "Obama Change", you see thousands of articles where Americans who live and work abroad are no longer living in "hidding", they're not saying they are Canadians anymore. For once in eight years, we actually saw people take to the streets in Beirut, Paris, Buenos Aires and not burn the American flag but embrace it.
I wonder though, is there a price to pay for being too nice? During the elections, Obama has been attacked constantly for his "too soft" stand on some foreign policy issues. I guess we won't know that untill he actually takes charge but we should not give in on our interest just to please people world wide. It's getting more and more competitive in the world today, and with the rise of Eastern Superpowers, China, India, and Russia, and especially Russia who is invading sovereign countires and dividing them on ethnic lines, Obama is going to have to be very carefull on how he deals with these issues.
But untill then, thank God for this "change" and Americans finally got an opporunity once again to show their pride of being an American.