Yawning Over The Reputation Deal

Boris Johnson: Or, to put it another way, it is not clear how America under McCain would recover her standing in the eyes of the world.

I got that from Steyn, who's also keeping an eye on the columnists that are jumping on the Obama band wagon.

I won't go through Johnson's article except to say that it's the usual tripe. He perceives Obama as an agent of change and hope, then goes on to say that he hopes Congress can stymie any "ill-considered tax proposals" that Obama puts forward. Earth to Boris: the only change Obama has ever put forward is a hope for new taxes.

I just noticed how many times I used the word "hope" in that last paragraph. When it comes to Obama, people find themselves saying that a lot.

Anyway, as for McCain being unable to recover America's standing in the eyes of the world...who cares?

I love how this is supposed to be some sort of campaign talking point, as if presidents need the vote of a guy in Canberra.

Nobody on the foreign diplomatic circuit much liked America before Bush, and none of them will like America after he's gone. When I was in university in the mid-90's, I heard ton of anti-American vitriol from profs and students alike. Even when loverboy Bill Clinton was in office, Canadians supposedly "hated" America. Bush had nothing to do with it, unless these people hated baseball in general and the Texas Rangers in particular.

America is rich and powerful. They're envied, so they're disliked by foreign governments who use the US as a bogeyman and whipping boy (except when these nations are attacked by a bad guy or get hit by a hurricane; then Americans are welcome to come on over to get shot at and spend billions). The only way to make America as warm and fuzzy as Sweden is for them to pawn their military hardware, run government funded health care, and chop their economy in half. Then they'll be "liked." But who would want to live there?

I can't get my head around the idea that the United States is despised by the whole world, when hundreds of illegal immigrants come over the border every day and the visa line-ups at American embassies go out the door.

Politicians and rich faux philosophers may not "like" America, but the regular working stiff keeps banging on the door to get in. That says more to me than anything a politician might whisper under his breath at a cocktail party.