The press are liberal (in our sense of the word) over there, just like they are over here. So are the people who award the Nobel Prize. And most the people who post stuff online are, too (at least by our standards).
The man on the street may have had a "Gee Whiz" reaction -- "The United States elected a Black man, how about that!" -- but it's kind of like when major league sports get their first Japanese or Korean pitcher or Chinese basketball player.
There's certainly a novelty factor. Whether there's much more than that is harder to say. What I guess I'm saying is that the reaction of ordinary Europeans was more superficial and don't really need a lot of "I told you so."
The old expression, “Jumping from the frying pan into the fire” has been around so long because it describes in essence what people so often do. It is a perfect description for replacing George W. Bush with Barack Hussein Obama...or Barry Soetoro or Soebarkah or whatever the hell his name is.