The election of the first black president is the bookend to 9/11. What can you feel but joy? How can anyone with even slightly mainstream politics not share the joy? Conservatives feel it, non-Americans feel it. It is a special day. The occasion has unified us.
So weird, I simultaneously thought exactly this while I was making my patty melt not 5 minutes ago. Spooky!
I think of it as a delayed response and may actually help to repair some of the last several years in the rest of the world.
Another one:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081105/ap_on_re_eu/eu_election_an_american_abroad
“Nothing was said, but the message was clear: Today, we are all Americans.”