Frank Rich in today’s New York Times:
The festive scenes of liberation that Dick Cheney had once imagined for Iraq were finally taking place — in cities all over America.
A couple of other items of interest, in case you missed them.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu penned a wonderful letter to The Washington Post:
The Bush administration has riled people everywhere. Its bully-boy attitude has sadly polarized our world.
Against all this, the election of Barack Obama has turned America’s image on its head. My wife was crying with incredulity and joy as we watched a broadcast of the celebrations in Chicago. A newspaper here ran a picture of Obama from an earlier trip to one of our townships, where he was mobbed by youngsters. It was tacitly saying that we are proud he once visited us.
Today Africans walk taller than they did a week ago — just as they did when Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first black president in 1994. Not only Africans, but people everywhere who have been the victims of discrimination at the hands of white Westerners, have a new pride in who they are. If a dark-skinned person can become the leader of the world’s most powerful nation, what is to stop children everywhere from aiming for the stars? The fact that Obama’s Kenyan grandfather was a convert to Islam may — shamefully — have been controversial in parts of the United States, but elsewhere in the world, Obama’s multi-faith heritage is an inspiration.
There seems to be a belief that Obama, by virtue of his race and his background, represents a real global leader.
Also published in The Washington Post, an incredible, must-read story about the former butler at the White House, a man who served under every President from Truman to Reagan. H/to Adrastos.
CenLamar 