I'm a 27 year old US citizen. I have not once felt the urge to vote. Never felt "proud" to be American. I never thought of the elections as anything more than a choosing of the candidate that (hopefully) sucks less.

This election I felt compelled to vote. Originally I thought Ron Paul at least had some good ideas and if nothing else, his heart was in it. When he dropped out I started looking closer at the 2 mainstream candidates. I heard a quote from some racist redneck that they "in good conscience as a Christian vote for Obama" - as if Christ hates black people or something. That took me aback because I thought most of us were past that. Apparently there are still pockets of "civilization" in the US that have a racist mentality. Well after seeing a clip of McCain joking about bombing Iran, I in good conscience as a human vote for him.

I don't share in the excitement of having a new black president. It honestly never crosses my mind that he's "black". I do share in the excitement that we might actually have a President that will repair our relations with other countries. A President who might bring rationality back to the US. A President that might actually make me proud to be American.

Regardless of who you voted (or would have voted) for, this much excitement from the GLOBAL population has to mean that we made a good choice. I won't go into why I think he's the better choice for the sake of staying on topic. I will finish by giving the world a HUGE thanks for the support. It almost brings a tear to my eye to see how involved and excited you are. I sincerely hope our new President won't have let you down.

[edits]

To the poster that was offended that an American might not be proud to be one - Pride in being a member of a group is not a given when you have no say in that membership. That doesn't mean I don't want to be American. For me, it just means that I had no reason to believe I was special for having been born here. One of the problems with governments is they fully expect people to worship them rather than take action to earn that worship. In this case I would be proud because we have President coming that might actually take steps to unite the world. Spin that off as NWO if you like. I prefer to shine my own light on it for now.

sos:

You label my words as hate because you don't agree with my stand on politics.

No, they label your words as hate because they were hateful. You're out of line and off topic. Don't dare to represent the rest of us.

[edit on 6-11-2008 by an0maly33]

As an American citizen, I welcome your opinions, smug and otherwise, from all over the world! Please keep sharing them!

And thank you for the Congratulations! I feel it's well-deserved! I'm proud of my current state, my state of birth (formerly both red states) and my country for electing Obama!

It's been a celebratory atmosphere around here. When I went to the store this morning, almost everyone made eye-contact, smiled and said hello to me! It's really amazing! People are happy!

The idea that some have that Obama is a socialist makes me laugh.

You guys (most Americans) don't even know what it is, we cannot blame you for that since it does not really exist in the USA. Come here in Europe
and I'll show what SOCIALISM is. Like I said earlier, I am a right winger in my own country and I would have voted for Obama or Hillary Clinton if she made it. It does not mean that I hate Mr McCain, I respect him big time.

Politics specialists here in France said, Obama would be considered with his program as being on the far right end of President Sarkozy's party (right wing)

Learn about foreign politic and what SOCIALISM means before saying such nonsense.

I dislike socialism (most of their almost communist ideas), then tell me why I would have voted for Obama ? It was just a strategy or a statement to try to make Mr Obama look bad.

Now, I always loved America and it's people no matter who was running the country and most people in France feel the same as far as I know. We dislike President Bush, that's all and him and his "friends" tried to make you guys believe that France was turning it's back on you with the Irak war.

Friends (long time allies) can disagree, it does not mean, they hate each other, after 9/11 which foreign President was the 1st to fly to America ?

The French President (Chirac back then) because you guys are our oldest allies with the Irish, we helped you become America and fought together against the Brits' and you guys saved our as-s (with the Brits and many others I did not mention) when the Germans went crazy.

Let's never forget that...and remember who our true enemies are...now.

nb : America is my 2nd country as I studied & lived & worked there for many years, just to make it clear.

Peace,
Europa aka Buck

[edit on 6-11-2008 by Europa733]

A warm and heartfelt congratulations to the American people from Scotland for electing Obama. You have made the whole world proud of you.

Off topic, just think of the things we will be able to tell our grandchildren we witnessed first-hand. Potentially the world's greatest Depression accompanied by the election of the first black President of the USA. These truly are historic times.

I've only just seen this thread. Congratulations Barack Obama,you were the better candidate for the job. And I hope that the fact that you're black,eats at the souls of all the racists,and drives them insane. I also hope that you won't turn into a tool of the NWO,but I don't hold out much hope.

Originally posted by sos37
What we can do without is the smugness of people from other countries offering their opinions on how our fine country ought to be run. America is still the best country on Earth in my opinion.

What ATS can do without is people who don't understand the difference between peoples opinions and "smugness", and don't understand that ATS is an international message board, visited by people all across the world, and it can definitely do without people who can't read thread titles and want to appear to troll for the sake of it.

The topic of this thread is "Congratulations to President Elect Obama from People outside America."

The fact that people from outside America may be expressing their opinions here should not really come as a shock to you.

I'm sorry, no offence to the OP, but 40+ flags and 40+ stars for a thread... on the world's biggest conspiracy forum nonetheless... simply congratulating a man for being selected under the guise of having been democratically 'elected'? How is this relevant to the nature of ATS? The entire world is celebrating like Jesus just returned, and yet NO-ONE has even the slightest clue as to whether Obama is going to prove good for the world or not. Sure he's charismatic, but so is Johnny Depp. Doesn't make him a good President.

I'll congratulate him, and America, when he makes good some of the promises he made and actually improves life for not only American citizens, but people the world round by not meddling in foreign affairs.

EDIT: To delete quote

[edit on 6/11/2008 by Cythraul]

Originally posted by Cythraul
"I promised you change you can believe in, I did not promise you change you can actually see."
- Barack Obama

You don't happen to have a source for that quote, do you? Because I call shenanigans.

Originally posted by Cythraul
How is this relevant to the nature of ATS?

Its a discussion about a political event, in the Decision 2008 forum, in the Political section of ATS.

How is that not relevant to the nature of ATS?

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
You don't happen to have a source for that quote, do you? Because I call shenanigans.

Searched back to find the source but couldn't find a legitimate one, so I've humbly deleted the quote from my post. Still, whether he said it or not, I'm confident that it is what he's thinking.

Originally posted by neformore
Its a discussion about a political event, in the Decision 2008 forum, in the Political section of ATS.

How is that not relevant to the nature of ATS?

Forgot that the Above Politics forum had merged with conspiracy discussion .

Originally posted by HunkaHunka

Timelike, pay no attention to sos. He is one of a dying breed, and if you look at the other threads you will find there is no limit the amount of hate that he spews towards the members of this forum. Please don't let the stench of just one ruin your impression of the rest of us.
[edit on 6-11-2008 by HunkaHunka]

Many thanks HunkaHunka. He/she is clearly a frightened individual, the sort of person that no doubt would feel at home in witch hunts etc. I have had the honour to know many Americans, and I know you are all quite remarkable and charming. What you have done this week, which some no doubt would have found difficult, proves what a wonderful group of people you are.

double post

[edit on 6-11-2008 by sos37]

While I may not agree with the new presidents policies, as a citizen of the US I do appreciate everyone's support. Maybe i'm just not seeing the positive side to this choice yet, hopefully i'm wrong. I didn't vote for him or McCain, neither candidate sounded like a good choice to me. While I do think it's nice that this may improve our image abroad, I can't help but think what the image at home is going to be in the future.

Originally posted by Cythraul
Still, whether he said it or not, I'm confident that it is what he's thinking.

So, you had a "quote" of his that you used to show how much of an idiot he is and you have retracted that he even made that quote, but you're just sure what he's thinking... You know him that well... to know what he's thinking. You know his mind, even though you were wrong about what he said...

Ok. I see.