COMMENT Delighted as the United States seems to be with its president-elect, excitement abroad is running even higher. Barack Obama has said he wants to repair US standing in the world, and George W. Bush’s foreign critics are thrilled at the prospect. It would be unwise, however, to take it for granted that feelings on either side will stay quite this ardent for long.
Manner and tone count in these things, and here Mr Obama has an effortless advantage over his predecessor. Mr Bush, with his Texan swagger and down-home affectations, was always bound to give maximum offence to the kind of foreigner who is inclined to be anti-American in the first place. Mr Obama, making the starkest possible contrast, fits the template of citizen of the world. Indeed he is perceived by many Bush-loathing foreigners as an outsider in his own country. He strikes them as far more congenial. No American could be more so.
