In Morocco, Obama Is Already Hard at Work

MARRAKECH, Morocco, Jan 20, 2009 — -- Today, Barack Obama will take office and get to work solving the myriad challenges that face America. But the 44th president has already been hard at work making change in Morocco. And that's without a stimulus package.

Wandering through hundreds of tightly packed food stands on the main square in Marrakech, the economic downturn is evident. Typically packed tables are often empty at dinnertime, and hawkers clamor for tourists' business more aggressively than ever before -- though always staying friendly to a fault.

While most hawkers drown one another out with banal pitches ("I give you best price!"), the manager of stand 123 won't let the financial crisis cramp his style.

As we wandered through the food stands, this rotund middle-aged man stopped me in my tracks to show off the Obama-Biden campaign button pinned to his jacket.

"Yes we can! Yes we can!" Ahmed bellowed in the square. "It's time for change! Obama-Biden 2008!

"There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America, there's the United States of America!" he proclaimed, grinning as he gently placed a menu into my hand.

While my friend and I were absolutely baffled by his uncanny ability to mimic Obama, Ahmed led us to a little plastic table at his food stand. Just like that, with a little smooth talking, he got our business.

But Ahmed didn't stop with the 2004 Democratic Convention speech; he had an impressive repertoire. If Obama said it on the news, he seemed to know it. From the president-elect's election night victory speech to his 2007 Springfield, Ill., candidacy declaration, Ahmed quoted from speech after speech.

Why quote Obama? Why not extol the virtues of your food? Where's the business sense in that?

"Tourists from all over the world love Obama. Everyone knows him," he explained in English. "We love Obama because he is a good man. Good ideas. Better than Bush."

Although he lives thousands of miles away, Obama has allowed Ahmed to transcend the awkwardness of hawking his food to wary tourists.