“1) It was more that they were glad that Bush was finally out. 2) Most Frenchmen probably didn’t care.”
Nope. Bush was out no matter who won: they went wild FOR obama! I had one fool from Sweden on some chat board about something or other (unrelated to politics) send me a message congratulating me for electing such an incredible, wonderful, amazing BLACK President! I responded that more people voted against obama than the entire population of Sweden, including me, and I would be very interested in what he though of the son of a bitch by the time obama left office.
I also remember reading MANY national publications from various Western European countries simply going apeshit over Obama being elected. You do remember obama was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize
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."