Though it took more than 200 years to reach this point, foreign observers, especially in Europe, marvel at Barack Obama’s ascendancy. They recognize from their own relative marginalization of people of color or of immigrants that no French, German, Italian, or British Obama is on the horizon, and they wonder: how does America do it?
美国正在准备庆贺第一位黑人总统宣誓就职，这再一次表明了美国民族特性最佳的一面。尽管美国花了两百多年时间才做到了这一点，但是外国、特别是欧洲的观察家们惊叹于奥巴马的崛升。欧洲各国自己的有色人种或者移民相对受到排挤。他们从中认识到，法国、德国、意大利或者英国还不会出现奥巴马，而且他们在问：美国是怎样做得到这样的呢？