In a year that has seen shocking votes on everything from Brexit to the Colombia peace deal, few are taking Tuesday for granted.
Pope Francis is warning against “walls” and “false prophets.” Hillary Clinton has a commanding lead — in the absolute monarchy of Saudi Arabia. And Australians are furiously asking Google “What happens if Donald Trump wins?”
The whole world is on edge over the presidential election, fearing the political shocks that have been a global hallmark of 2016 will rock the United States on Tuesday.
So for a planet where many believe their fate is tied to that of the only superpower, the rhetoric in these final hours is anything but mild.
"Democracy at a Dead-End in America" was the headline of a Monday essay in Germany's Spiegel Online.
Financial Times writer Edward Luce's column began this way: "Fair enough, there was the U.S. civil war. Amid all the carnage the Yankees still went ahead with the 1862 and 1864 elections on schedule. Other than that, there is little in U.S. history to compare with what is at stake tomorrow."
And in Pakistan — where pretty politics are rare and military coups are not — the editorial board of the newspaper Dawn wrote over the weekend.: "The deep, gashing wounds of this extraordinary election will be difficult to heal."
The whole world doesn't get a vote on Tuesday, but it's clear many foreigners wish they did. If their wish came true, Clinton would likely win, as the poll of Saudi Arabia and other international surveys suggest.
The Democratic former secretary of state is viewed as a multi-lateralist who is much more predictable than Trump. In nearly half of 15 countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center earlier this year, the percentage of people who said they had confidence in Trump was in single digits.
But the election is still uncertain enough that gambling houses are seeing a reported spike in interest — with some saying it will be the most wagered upon political contest in history.
Election night parties also are scheduled for cities across the world; many of them hosted by American expatriates or U.S. embassies. They include gatherings in Mexico, a country smarting over Trump's depictions of its people as drug dealers and rapists.
Some overseas news organizations have launched their own live blogs to follow the American election, giving it prominence akin to the Olympics or the World Cup.
In Australia, where it will already be Wednesday by the time many in the U.S. vote Tuesday, the Sydney Morning Herald's live countdown included the results of Australians' Google searches.
(It also included a link to a column that declared: "In the grand sweep of world events, the U.S. election is a choice between two different approaches to managing the decline of U.S. dominance.")
The live blog of the German news organization Die Welt linked to a Twitter meme in which the German people write to Americans: "Go ahead, vote for the guy with the loud voice who hates minorities, threatens to imprison his opponents, doesn't give a f--- about democracy, and claims he alone can fix everything. What could possibly go wrong? Good luck."
Trump's biggest international fan appears to be U.S. rival Russia, where state-backed media have directly or indirectly tried to boost the the real estate mogul. One such outlet, RT, posted stories Monday focusing on the fallout from Clinton's email scandals.
North Korea, another U.S. nemesis, has also at times hinted that it likes Trump. One of its main mouthpieces, the Korean Central News Agency, published commentary on Sunday that trashed at length President Barack Obama's outgoing administration.
"Owing to the criminal policy of Obama, the U.S. is on the verge of the worst political, military and economic inferiority, cultural and moral destruction and denunciation and isolation at home and abroad," the KCNA column states. "Therefore, the U.S. has no future."
Pope Francis, who has verbally tangled with Trump this election cycle, didn't mention the Republican by name in remarks at a Saturday gathering of organizations that aid the poor.
But, according to CNN, Francis insisted people "can overcome, with God's help, the false prophets who exploit the fear and hopelessness, that sell magic formulas of hatred and cruelty or selfish welfare and an illusory security."
And in what many viewed as a veiled reference to Trump's desire to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, Francis promised: “Dear brothers and sisters — all walls fall. All of them. Do not be fooled.”
