As the national conventions of the two main political parties in the United States grab the media’s attention, the Arab world is beginning to consider the importance of the choice that American voters will make in two months’ time. Four years ago many in the Arab world were deeply moved by the success of Barack Hussein Obama, a young African-American with Muslim family roots. His campaign of hope and his slogan of "Yes We Can" captured the Arab imagination; a similar spirit of hope and empowerment later galvanized Arab youth and Arab citizens in the uprisings of the Arab Spring. And almost all Arabs — conservative and liberal, religious and secular, Sunni and Shiite — were eager to see the departure of George W. Bush.
Today the situation is different. The United States is less omnipresent than it was four years ago; the region is overwhelmed with its own internal and regional crises; and, opinion is divided for and against the current US president. Indeed, many of the region’s surviving state elites — particularly in the Arab Gulf monarchies — have found President Obama too soft on Iran and too sympathetic to democratic uprisings and to Muslim Brotherhood parties that win elections.
