Sometimes a lesson in contrast is the best way to explain what a “brand’ is and how it resonates value and meaning.

Today, parts of the world responded to the Obama "brand" and here's what they had to say:

"He has a very appealing persona—elegant, fluent, strings lots of sentences together into paragraphs."    - Michael Cox, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics

“Obama's mixture of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy very attractive."    - Karsten Voigt, Germany’s gov’t coordinator on U.S. relations.

Obama's campaign "has rekindled America's faith in its prodigious powers of reinvention—and the world's admiration for America."    - The Times London news headline.

Obama’s win "demonstrated that American democracy is not doomed to being confiscated by a narrow political class, financed by lobbies and piloted by communication experts."   - France’s Le Monde newspaper.

Obama is "a thinking man of ethics and ideals … Bush's leaving will let Cuba rest a bit after eight years."    - Jorge Serguera, a 70-year-old retiree in Havana.

You get the idea. Does Wisconsin's Jim Sensenbrenner, Scott Walker, or Paul Ryan? Does McCain?

Do you recall what anyone had to say about McCain's primary win? Seriously.