Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton struggling against each other for every superdelegate, every pending state primary, every vote is the best thing America has had going for it in some time on the "global public diplomacy" front.
John McCain's subtle flirtation with vice presidential possibilities ranging from his former rival Mitt Romney to Mike Huckabee to Michael Bloomberg to Condoleezza Rice -- among others -- has caught the attention of people in Mumbai, Jakarta, Rio, Riyadh, Beijing, Damascus, and far more.
The world is seeing Americans struggle about who U.S. citizens want in the White House. There is no stacked deck, no automatic succession, no heir apparent -- and this political experience of dramatic uncertainty and the pairing of an elder pro-Iraq War POW torture-victim turned leading Senator vs. either the first African-American or female candidate has the feel of a presidential election of a life-time -- the kind that won't be forgotten for a century...
The world is watching, learning. And American popularity in the eyes of global citizens watching us is surging because of the excitement and uncertainty of this fascinating election.
Clemons tends to communicate with elites, and he relays no empirical evidence in his post. But it's an interesting perspective and something I hadn't full considered, though it seems obvious in retrospective. Of course Arab leaders want to know who the next President will be, it will heavily factor into their political and military strategies going forward. The open process, and struggles, probably does have some salutary effect on the world's image of America, though how much is difficult to understand. It's probably something of a one-two punch, where a new election followed by a change in direction would have a much larger effect than just an open election followed by the same old unilateralism.
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