Britain seemed to let out a collective sigh today:
Robin Niblett, director of the foreign affairs thinktank Chatham House, told Monitor reporter Ben Quinn that he believed that there would have been been genuine “relief” at Downing Street following Tuesday night’s result.
“My impression is that the president and the prime minister do genuinely get along. They are both pragmatists, both figures who are not particularly emotional about their policies. It's a different relationship to others in the past and therefore this is safe result at a time when the UK has a lot of challenges,” he said. “Having to bed in relations with a new US administration at this moment is not what Cameron would need.”
Indeed, Prime Minister David Cameron told the BBC during a trip to the Middle East that he had a good relationship with Obama.
"I have really enjoyed working with he over the last few years and I look forward to working with him again over the next four years,” he said.
A Guardian editorial lauded what it called US "good electoral judgment in difficult times:"
His victory wasn't big. It wasn't pretty. It didn't break the mould. It certainly wasn't inspirational in the way that his win in 2008 was. In places it was wafer-thin. But it was a US presidential win all the same. And the win in 2012 matters just as much as the earlier win did in 2008. In difficult times, it is even, arguably, a greater political achievement. Mr Obama's win is good for Americans, good for America, and good for the world.
