I have a friend, Chris, an American who is a professor of English in Japan. This morning he wrote

In today's Tokyo newspaper there was a vertical two-panel political cartoon. Top: Obama on stage, smiling, the crowd yelling "Obama!" Bottom: Obama, head hung, crowd yelling "Obaka!" ('fool,' although the o- is an honorific). Maybe the fact they've been had is setting in.

Wising up? I'm quite sure that most of Washington is still smoking cigarettes in the longest afterglow in history.