Travel tip: America’s reputation abroad can be quite important, actually. Though I consider myself a well-seasoned traveler, I nonetheless found myself pulled over for speeding through the outskirts of Marrakesh without a driver’s license in a rented car. My sister and her boyfriend, in the passenger and back seats, were carrying neither licenses nor their passports. The intimidating, uniformed police officer who’d pulled us over naturally wanted to see all of these documents. I started to wonder what a night in a jail in Marrakesh might be like. But then he sized us up, told me to drive slower, and let us go. As we pulled away, his partner raised a fist in the air and shouted, “Barack Obama!” In that moment, every minute I spent knocking on doors during the primaries was redeemed—somehow I don’t think John McCain would’ve kept me out of trouble.
