tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5705092755446130907.post-77699237566725247592007-04-25T17:59:00.000-07:002007-04-25T18:16:19.166-07:002007-04-25T18:16:19.166-07:00What Obama Represents: Rebranding AmericaEchoing exactly my argument for Obama cross-posted here and on dailykos three months ago, Andrew Sullivan shows that
<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/04/the_rebranding_.html">he gets it</a>:
<blockquote>Obama brings something no one else does to this moment. By replacing one of the most globally despised and domestically divisive presidents in American history with a young leader half-Kansan and half-Kenyan, America would be saying something to the world: Bush-Cheney is not who we are. America is not what it has come to appear to be. This country is among the most culturally and racially and religiously diverse on the planet. America has long been a powerful and vital beacon for human rights - not, as recently, the avatar of torture, rendition and executive tyranny. The simple existence of Obama as a new president in a new century would in itself enhance America's soft power immeasurably, just as a clear decision to leave Iraq would provide much greater leverage for diplomacy and military force in a whole variety of new ways. Obama would mean the rebranding of America, after a disastrous eight years. His international heritage, his racial journey, his middle name: these are assets for this country, not liabilities.
This is the reason for his ascendancy. This is what the American people sense and the world awaits. This is what the Islamists fear. That last alone is reason to feel hope.
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Sullivan's title, "The Re-Branding of America", is lifted directly from <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2/2/123149/1607">my post about Obama on February 2</a>, where I said it like this:
<blockquote>The strongest national-security case for Obama is this: <strong>electing President Barack Obama would, in one fell swoop, "re-brand America" to the world</strong>. Barack Obama is the personal embodiment of <em>hope</em> -- that audacious elixir that sustains life even for people in the most desperate of circumstances. Barack Obama, the son of an African man. Barack Obama, the stepson of an Indonesian man. Just imagine what it would mean to the world if America could elevate someone with this background to our highest office!</p>
<p>It would advertise that we are a meritocracy, after all. That we are a truly multicultural society, after all. That we welcome our immigrants, after all. That we see Muslims as people, not as enemies, after all. And that America, for people in every corner of the world, is still the shining beacon of hope.</p>
</blockquote>
Plagiarism? Nah. Just the same truth being rediscovered as its righteousness becomes ever more manifest.SinkLinchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01999984978122476022noreply@blogger.com