The optimism. The historical significance. The national celebration. The gracious comments of the sitting president on the victory of the opposition candidate. And most importantly, the incredibly high expectations. The amazing reaction following Obama's victory seems similar to that after the election of Brazil's first working-class president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. The similarities are striking. Lula even defined himself as the candidate of "hope."
The man of the people went on to fill his cabinet with cronies, was involved in what is perhaps the greatest corruption scandal in the country's history (and that is saying a lot for Brazil), has accomplished little more than a massive expansion of a government program providing stipends to poor families and seems more interested in perpetuating his party's power than bringing about the change he promised.
But there are differences of course. Obama is highly educated and belongs to a party that has held the national office before, while Lula dropped school in fourth grade and his presidency was the first of his party. And thankfully America is not Brazil, where a convicted felon can be elected to office. Like the senate. Oh, wait.
Update: It turns out that Ted Stevens was not elected to the senate, though it was a very close race.
