So, O Exalted One, how are you going to deal with this?
We're expecting miracles, after all... so get to work!
Well? Don't you have anything to say, Barry? Barry?
Oh, sorry, Barry, but I'm afraid there's a bit more work for you... here, I'll just dump it on your desk... *WHOOMP!*
LONDON — Two difficult wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A simmering nuclear crisis with Iran. Renewed rivalries with Russia and China. A global financial meltdown spawned on Wall Street. Terrorists almost certainly looking for ways to mount a fresh attack in the U.S.
Not since Franklin D. Roosevelt came to power during the Great Depression has a U.S. president faced such a daunting set of world problems.
But perhaps the biggest foreign policy challenge of all for Barack Obama is restoring America's battered world standing, damaged by global outrage over the Iraq war and by the deep crisis in the capitalist system the U.S. had come to embody.
Eight years ago, the world looked to the United States for leadership. Today, it is increasingly seen as a nation in decline, hobbled by hubris and uninspired leadership — destined, perhaps, to be overtaken by China within a generation.
Well, Barry, you DID ask for this job, and you DID imply that you were a miracle-worker of some sort, so...
Work your miracles. Wave your magic wand, chant something, O Exalted One... whatever it is you do to fix everything that's messed up in the world... go ahead.
Meanwhile, the Republicans will be cleaning house and trying to figure out what the hell they've been doing wrong lately... thanks for relieving them for awhile so they can take stock and get their shit together... hopefully!
