The Washington Post, November 5, 2008, (excerpts) — Over a two-year campaign, Barack Obama laid out a vision for the nation’s future in soaring speeches that enthralled his audiences. With his victory in the presidential election on Tuesday, those goals will collide with daunting realities.
The promise: Obama says he would engage both allies and adversaries to repair the U.S. image abroad and regain leverage and leadership that he says Bush squandered with the Iraq war. He says he will marshal international pressure against Iran, boost U.S. efforts against extremists along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and get a faster and firmer start on Middle East peacemaking. He vowed to ’renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression.’
The problem: The Bush administration has already reversed many of its policies that other nations saw as isolationist or bullying _ for example, by joining international diplomatic efforts with ’axis of evil’ nations Iran and North Korea. But even those haven’t produced great results and neither has yet to achieve its desired goal. Obama has suggested he would continue such efforts, but there is no guarantee they will yield greater success.