Tom Griffin (London, OK): Gerry Hassan worries that an Obama victory might hold out the prospect of "the reinvigoration of the whole ‘Camelot on the hill’ liberal rhetoric." Anthony Barnett is more hopeful. In an email exchange with K.A. Dilday he suggests that an Obama presidency may represent a break from American exceptionalism.
I'm sure that Bush felt - perhaps I should say "feels" as he is still going to be President for another three months - sorry for foreigners. He pities us. He expects us if we are good humans to want to be Americans, and if we don't he assumes we are likely to be bad anti-Americans. By contrast there is a very different and moving passage about al-Qaeda in the intro to Obama's first book where he reflects (I quote from memory, someone has walked off with my copy, a good omen) that its malevolent explosions have touched different parts of his life: Bali, Nairobi and New York.
This is the Obama I hope wins today and becomes a president. A man who sees himself and his country as part of the world, not apart from it. A country of hope but not our last or only hope.
