Flip side to the caustic, bigoted allegations made against Barack Obama when he was running for president. The radical right and their enablers on the not-so-radical right argued throughout Obama's campaign for the presidency that he ought to use his middle name, that he ought to be known in America as Barack Hussein Obama, that the Muslim heritage of his father's African family, his own time living in a Muslim majority country when he was a child, should brand him as a Muslim - despite his Christian faith - and thereby render him unelectable in the United States. Well, today in Cairo, President Barack Hussein Obama showed America the flip side of that failed strategy against him, turning what his opponents said was a strike against him into a resonant international American political asset.Well said, my thoughts exactly. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports, "The appreciation for the new approach from a U.S. president seemed widespread among Middle Eastern Muslims," representing for many "a much-welcomed clearing of the air." Sure, the "devil's in the details" and there's a ton more work to be done (in part to undo the damage of the last 8 years), but Barack Hussein Obama is off to a great start. Shukran, ya Rais Obama, wa mabruk! (thank you President Obama, and congratulations!) :)
UPDATE: The New York Times writes...
When President Bush spoke in the months and years after Sept. 11, 2001, we often — chillingly — felt as if we didn’t recognize the United States. His vision was of a country racked with fear and bent on vengeance, one that imposed invidious choices on the world and on itself. When we listened to President Obama speak in Cairo on Thursday, we recognized the United States.
