Yes we can't

Much stirring prose has already been written by much better writers on Barack Obama’s victory speech at Chicago, so I had better focus on a couple of the more substantive aspects of the change in the US. America has had many charismatic presidents in the past. But even in times when it was a much more pre-eminent power nobody tugged at the heart-strings of non-Americans around the world like he does. Why? Is it just because of his race? Yes, the victory of the underdog in so fiercely competitive and unforgiving a society is something that fires your imagination immediately. But there is more behind this global sense of elation than merely the colour of Obama’s skin. It is also the fact that after Bush had made them detest and fear America for nearly seven years now, people around the world have welcomed Obama with a sense of relief. Here is an American leader who’s so positive, so forthcoming and so lovable. Not angry or bitter and always seeking revenge, as George Bush had begun to sound after 9/11.
Obama has still to prove himself as a leader but he has already comforted us all with his choice of words. He has never come across as being soft on terrorism, or even on his country’s engagement in Iraq or Afghanistan. In fact, even in his victory speech he mentioned both in a manner which, substantively, was not pacifist. But his phraseology is entirely inoffensive, in complete contrast with George Bush’s. We will smoke ’em out, either you are with us or with the terrorists, the axis of evil, history begins now — these were all Bush’s lines, all arrogant, crude, in-your-face lines that embarrassed his allies, scared those who could only afford to be neutral, and gave added moral and ideological justification to his enemies. Obama knows he has to continue in earnest with the war Bush started, but without offending the world like he did. Even the sole superpower cannot win its battles by making the whole world hate its guts. He knows his ethnicity, his upbringing and, most of all, his middle name will help draw out some of that venom. But he also knows that the American people will be watching him closely, that they haven’t exactly voted a bleeding heart, softie apologist to presidency