U.S. shoots self in hiney

Black Tuesday: As the delirious Bush impeachment team of Pelosi and Reid prepares to drag America into two years of nonstop political games, diversions, nonsense, gridlock, demagoguery, thuggery, posturing, self-flagellation and Frenchification, we pause now for a round-up of election reacts.

Europeans celebrate Bush smackdown

Evidencing the real origin of Bush Delusional Syndrome: Two hundred Socialist members of the European Parliament hailed the election results as “the beginning of the end of a six-year nightmare for the world.”

Swiss cheese: President George W. Bush has been taught a lesson in the United States mid-term elections, according to many Swiss newspaper leader writers on Thursday. They say he is reaping his just reward for his administration's conduct of the war in Iraq. And they are convinced that for the next two years Bush, termed "a cowboy" and even a "lame duck", will now be on the defensive.

And, but of course—France: "There is less White House in America now and a little less America in the world," said Dominique Moisi, special councillor at the French Institute of International Relations.

Elsewhere in the world

Pakistan: An opposition parliamentarian, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, hoped for more. Mr Bush "deserves a Saddam-like death sentence," he said.

Syria: “President Bush is no longer acceptable worldwide,” said Suleiman Hadad, a lawmaker in Syria, whose autocratic government has been shunned by the U.S.

Iran: Iranian state television said in a commentary that the Republicans suffered losses because of “Bush’s wrong strategy in the Middle East” as well as “finanial corruption in the United States.”

Canada: And if one thing unites Europeans these days, it is opposition to Mr. Bush. A major poll of European citizens taken earlier this year by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, a series of worldwide public opinion surveys, found that only 30 per cent of Britons have any confidence that Mr. Bush will do the right thing in world affairs. That number falls to 25 per cent for Germans, 15 per cent for French citizens and 7 per cent for Spaniards. (Toronto Globe & Mail)

Iraq: "The vote shows the Iraqi and American people are of one mind about withdrawing U.S. troops," said Falah Hassan Shanshal, who leads the parliamentary bloc of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. "We hope the Democrats don't forget their campaign promises.”

One ray of sunshine

India: “If the people of the Middle East rejoice at Bush’s humbling and praise America’s system and get inspired by it, George Bush should be happy. So should we be.” (Jaithirth Rao, The Indian Express)