A very impressive collaboration went into reporting this piece. The diversity of sources is excellent -- from army generals to novelists to lawyers. The writing was stylish but fair. The author quoted skeptics and supporters equally, and backed their input with level-headed analysis. A very good read, what I expected to see today from the Times.

While there are multiple attributed quotes, much of the article consists of the paraphrased and generalized opinions attributed to people of other nations. It would be stronger and seem less loaded with opinion if the sources of the views stated were identified and quoted.

This article does well at demonstrating just what America means to the rest of the world. And with Mr. Obama's election that meaning--hope, admiration, wonder, envy, disappointment--begins a new cycle. It is hard to imagine what a McCain victory would have produced; the United States needed so desperately to repudiate the misdeeds of the Bush administration, and perhaps the world needed it even more than we did. So it finishes...and begins.

As a survey of global response, this is comprehensive, probably accurate and subtly humorous. Inevitably, President Obama will not be able to meet the World's extraordinary expectations and rigorous judgements of the US. The article by allowing the various commentators to imply, or spell out, the conditions on their enthusiasm, subtly underlined this reality .