| | America Rides Off Into the Sunset
The world's masses -- most of them young, poor and non-Western -- may applaud a hip, post-racial Barack Obama more than they ever would an old-money Texan like Bush. Obama may give soaring Wilsonian speeches abroad and be crowned with the Noble Peace Prize for his anointed vision of a new global brotherhood.
But, unfortunately, national leaders themselves do not behave like excited concertgoers or European intellectuals. Instead, they have only long-term self-interests -- not temporary emotional crushes -- and so seek to expand their influence whenever they can.
Obama better understand that difference. A world without strong U.S. leadership really would become a far more dangerous place where the strong do as they please and the weak obey as they must.
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Obama . . . has apparently confused what people say with what nations do.
