Cairo, Egypt - With less than two weeks to US presidential election, the world is taking interest in a vote that will undoubtedly affect them, especially here in the Middle East. The anguish of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has leaked in to regional commentators' conscience, leading them to ask if Americans want to continue to drive home a "nationalist" agenda.
"As America looks for a new public philosophy to guide it out of its current crisis, Palin has only this to offer: nationalism without substance and rhetoric without ideas," writes Muqtader Khan in an opinion piece published in Egypt's Al Ah r am weekly newspaper.
Khan, director of Islamic Studies at the University of Delaware – the home state of Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden – believes Americans must choose a new direction, echoing the calls of other Egyptian commentators who feel Barrack Obama gives the US a true change from politics that have tarnished the country's image worldwide.
"America is a great country that has sadly suffered a great calamity (eight years of neo-conservatism). It needs a leader who will unite Americans and resuscitate America with wisdom and devotion. Obama is that man," Khan wrote.
Local Egyptian commentators agreed with Khan's assertions that Obama is the man.
In an Ahram daily editorial this week, the paper offered Obama as someone who has finally given way to years of hatred of Arabs, despite his Christian and not Arab background.
"He has made it possible for these issues not to be a major force in an American election," for the first time in the country's history.
What will happen 4 November is keeping the entire world waiting. They are waiting to see if the American population will choose a new direction or the policies of the recent past continue with John McCain.