World closely watching US presidential elections

AKARTA, Indonesia – When Sri Murtiningsi asked her third grade class what they wanted to be when they grew up, the answers ranged from doctors to a pilot. One curly haired boy raised his hand: Barack Obama said his dream was to be president of the United States.

Forty years later Murtiningsi — like the rest of the world — is watching closely as Americans prepare to head to the polls Tuesday.

Many believe Obama's international experience would go a long way in helping repair damage caused by the unpopular U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with recent opinion polls from more than 70 nations favoring him a resounding three-to-one over Republican John McCain.

"Obama the best hope for U.S. revival," an editorial in The Australian Financial Review said Monday, arguing that "the world craves American leadership and never more so than now." The Gulf News, an English-language paper in the United Arab Emirates, had a similar take, saying only he could "undo the great damage done by the Bush administration to America's image," especially the Middle East.

Few if any in the sleepy Japanese coastal town of Obama — which translates as 'little beach' — would disagree. Images of the Democratic candidate adorn banners along a main shopping street and preparations for an election day victory party were in full swing Monday.

Koichi Inoue, who makes traditional Japanese sweet bean cakes, said his factory was working at double normal production because he had promised free handouts for every customer if Obama won.

"It looks like he is going to win from the polls so I've got to be ready," he said.

Interest in the U.S. election is high in Vietnam as well, in part because many people know McCain was shot down in Hanoi while flying an A-4 Skyhawk during a 1967 bombing run and then held prisoner of war for more than five years.

As a U.S. senator in the 1990s he played a key role in helping normalize relations between the two countries.

"McCain is someone who understands Vietnam," said Phan Manh Tien, 54, a retired soldier and truck driver. However, he said he prefers Obama because he considers the Democrat, who opposed the Iraq war from the outset, less hawkish.

Not everyone agreed, however.

Le Lan Anh, a Hanoi real estate tycoon and novelist, recently wrote a book about a U.S. fighter pilot inspired by McCain, calling him "a great man," in part because he passed up the opportunity to leave prison early, ahead of other U.S. inmates.

"He's patriotic," she said. "As a soldier, he came here to destroy my country, but I admire his dignity."

Many in Pakistan, a close ally in the U.S. war on terror, say they will be glued to television sets and the Internet on election day. The results, they say, will have broad implications for their own country and neighboring Afghanistan, where American forces have been battling the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies.

Violence has spread in recent months from tradition border regions to the capital, Islamabad, where a suicide bombing at the Marriott Hotel recently left more than 50 dead.

The last eight years have "affected our economy and our peace," said Mohammad Zubair, a 33-year-old lawyer in Lahore, who like others was widely anticipating an Obama win. "I hope the election will bring change to Pakistan as well."

The mood at the Indonesian elementary school where Obama studied for two years, meanwhile, was especially upbeat Monday with a crowd of 500 offering prayers for their former student at an early morning flag-raising ceremony.

Former teachers, classmates and friends fondly remember the then-chubby 8-year-old as a hardworking, good-natured and, to their amusement, sometimes naughty child.

"I taught him a few bad words in Indonesian," said childhood friend Rully Dassad, who still lives near the school in an upscale neighborhood in the capital. He described how students would burst into laughter when young Barack mimicked him. "But he was a very good sport about it."

Though she is now 69, Murtiningsi's memories of Obama are still strong. She describes standing in front of her class of third graders one Monday morning telling students that when she was young, her dream was to be a teacher.

"You too should follow your dreams," she said, asking the children what they wanted to be. "Barry was the only one who said he wanted to be president. ... I hope his dream comes true."