I'm an American living in Niger (insert gratuitous yellowcake joke here). These days I'm constantly finding myself in discussions with friends and colleagues about the US presidential primaries. Some of these conversations have gone in a similar direction as reported by your reader.

The overwhelming majority, however, involve some form of me trying to disabuse them of the notion that “Americans will never elect a black president”. This argument comes in several varieties, ranging from the smug dismissals offered by most of my European colleagues to genuine incredulity among my Nigerien friends that an African (his father's from Kenya, to them that makes him African) could compete against a field of white candidates. Andrew, you don't know how badly I want Obama to prove them all wrong.

There are many Dish readers across the world. The rest of us would be interested in your takes on similar conversations. Different? The same? What should Americans know about what foreigners are saying about this election? Let me know your actual experiences and I'll post.