A Black President Will Boost Brand USA Electing Obama will replace America's battered image with one of equality By Rob Quinn Posted Oct 23, 2008 9:58 AM CDT Copied Supporters with an US flag cheer for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., during his speech at the Victory Column in Berlin, Thursday, July 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Skin color is no reason to vote for anybody, Nick Kristof writes in the New York Times, but there's no denying that electing a black president would give America's image abroad a much-needed boost—"redefining the American 'brand' to be less about Guantánamo and more about equality." Almost half of people abroad polled by the BBC said a President Obama would "fundamentally change their view of the US." In nations where the image of a racist US holds sway, people find the concept of a black president so astonishing they may well drop their pre-conceived anti-American notions. "If this election goes as the polls suggest, we may find a path to restore America’s global influence—and thus to achieve some of our international objectives," Kristof writes, "in part because the world is concluding that Americans can, after all, see beyond a person’s epidermis." Read These Next Mid That 'buy now, pay later' loan may soon hit your credit score. Cops: Arizona 5th graders drew up plot to 'end' a classmate. The Bezos-Sanchez wedding: guest list, cost, the dress, and more. Report an error