World Follows American Elections 'Closely'

While watching all the primary coverage last night, I got to thinking about how or if the rest of the world is viewing the "Race to the Whitehouse."

I logged on to Al Jazeera's English site this morning and found this:

Obama 'favourite global candidate'

The race to be the next president of the United States has captivated the imagination of not just a vast majority of American citizens, but of people worldwide, according to a new report commissioned by Al Jazeera.
And Barack Obama, who is expected to soon clinch the Democratic nomination, is proving as popular abroad as he has at home.
In a survey of 22 countries, published on Tuesday, 80 per cent of people polled who said they were aware of the three main candidates - Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain - said they were following the election "closely".

Apparently Germany is following the election the closest, according to the report, "with a third of people aware of all the candidates also following the election 'very closely'."

Interestingly, not a mention of the elections anywhere on the Russian Itar-Tass news agency. The Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies had a pretty straightforward story with the headline "Barack Obama scripts history, seals Democratic nomination."

The Irish and London Times, BBC, China's Xinhua had similarly straightforward stories.