Even amid the cut and thrust of a remarkably close election, Obama is also reflecting more on what his election could mean for the rest of the world. "You probably know better than I do that there's enormous interest in this race," he said when I asked about this in Los Angeles. "People have been distressed about the direction Bush and Cheney have taken US foreign policy."
His election would "signal a clear break" from the past, he added, hinting that the Clintons' return to the White House would not. "I would come to meetings with world leaders with the understanding that I was opposed to this war in Iraq from the start, that I had consistently described a US foreign policy that puts diplomacy at the forefront."
Just as his life is, in some sense, the personification of the American melting pot, his election would also send a message to enemies and allies alike. "As somebody who myself lived overseas [in Indonesia] for a time, the world would see me as a different kind of president, somebody who could see the world through their eyes. |