Just back from three weeks in what Donald Rumsfeld famously termed "Old Europe." And all over Holland, France and Germany, I heard the same question: Who is going to win the American election? Most of the people I talked to knew the general outline of race, but not the specifics. The day to day boxing match to determine who is more patriotic, Barack Obama or John McCain, is lost on them.

Of greater importance is an end to all things George W. Bush. There's a great sense that people are anxiously waiting for the present U.S. administration to be relegated to memory. In the same way that German citizens now wave their flags and sing "Super Deutschland!" at soccer matches-- oblivious or willfully ignoring what doing so 70 years ago meant--much of Europe is hungry to turn the page on the past eight years.

You see a lot of interest in Obama in Europe. A few campaign signs dot the windows of the bars in Amsterdam's Jordaan district. T-shirts with his likeness worn on the streets of Paris. German light rail trains featuring his image and quick commuter newsflashes. But not once did I spy McCain's likable mug.