The excitement generated by the American primaries has echoed around the world. It's especially strong in Europe, where it has grabbed public attention like no other American campaign I can recall since the days of John F. Kennedy. Europeans are not only fascinated by this race for the White House; they wish they could vote in it.

If they could, a majority would probably choose Barak Obama. I say “probably” because opinion polls have been remarkably unreliable in this election year. But my own observations indicate that Obama's appeal cuts across all political and class divisions abroad, from cab drivers to the top echelons of European society.

At a meeting in Paris on the eve of Super Tuesday, I did an informal poll of the French Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. Their members are descendants of French aristocrats who fought in the American Revolution. They are about as conservative a group as you can find in France, and yet they all preferred Obama. And they are not alone. The French as a whole say Obama is their favorite candidate. He has caught their imagination with his image and soaring oratory. When they talk about him, they almost always mention Kennedy. Even French Socialists, who chose a woman to run as their candidate in France's presidential election last year, prefer Obama to Hillary Clinton by a slight margin.

The same enthusiasm for Obama has been reported in other countries in Europe, and back here in Britain, where “Obamamania” has fired the imagination of columnists and editorial writers as well as the man and woman on the street. A columnist in the conservative Daily Telegraph seemed to speak for most of the country when he wrote on Super Tuesday: Today's events are not just a matter for the Yanks, but for all of us, and I hope they inspire at least a season or two of thoughtfulness after what has seemed an age of spite.

He was referring to the Bush administration, whose policies have created the biggest anti-American backlash abroad that I have seen in more than four decades as a foreign correspondent. When the Daily Telegraph talks about the United States as a “war-mongering nation,” you know that America has few friends left.

It's the war in Iraq that has poisoned transatlantic relations. A French newspaper this week called it as stupid as it is tragic. Obama is the European's favorite because they believe he has taken an unambiguous stand against the war. What they want to see in Washington is change, and he seems to represent the biggest change.

Why should Americans care about what Europeans think? They can't vote in our election. But what a difference it would make to America's standing and influence in the world if the next American president could go abroad and be greeted with cheering crowds (like Presidents Kennedy or Reagan in Berlin) instead of having his public appearances strictly limited to the carefully controlled events that have to be orchestrated for President Bush abroad. And at home, too, for that matter.

An American president who was popular abroad as well as at home might be able to accomplish far more than the current administration, which has seen members of the “coalition of the willing” walk away from Iraq, and few countries willing to carry more of the burden in Afghanistan. Even the world's greatest superpower needs friends. So, in a way, those foreigners who wish they could vote in America's election do have a say.