President of the World

During the run up to Barrack Obama's Presidential Inauguration, I heard a phrase which struck me as odd. He was called the "President of the World." I guess it must be true. And Obama's predecessor certainly proved that moniker.

I've been a hermit since the start of the US Presidential campaign, and didn't really care one bit whether it went one way or another. I was just happy that the election would mean that George W. Bush's presidency would be about to end.

But in a big way, Pres. Bush really was the "President of the World." His Presidency was felt by the whole world. When the US economy melted down, the rest of the world teetered on the edge of the abyss, looking down at where the US was taking them. I all fairness, it was not his fault that 9/11 happened, or that Iraq didn't have any weapons of mass destruction (which he admitted just before he left office), or that the housing loan and financing meltdown happened on his watch. He can't even be blamed for winning against Al Gore. (The last is definitely true. Al Gore lost Tennessee! If he had won his home state, he didn't need to win Florida, where George's brother was Governor. But I digress.)

Another aside, tt's too bad that Bush was the butt of jokes from day one. But everything was there, From his daughters' driving under the influence, to his mispronouncing "nuclear." Bill Clinton may admitted to taking a whiff of marijuana when he was in college, but George W. Bush was called a cokehead in some media.

All in all, George W. Bush will be remembered for the worse economic recession since 1964, and for the worse military record since Vietnam.

I guess that in that sense Obama really is more, or should be more of a "President of the World" than his predecessor. For one, he's an African-American and not a WASP. Another is that he seems to have a bigger grasp of world issues than Ex-President Bush. And he also seems to be more of an intellectual in the mold of JFK. But time will tell if he will live up to it. Meantime, the world is fueled by his messages of optimism. The world is really excited about this one.

I'm just happy it's him. But it's just too bad that the McCain campaign was one of a self-destruct example, imploding upon itself. At one point it looked like an Obama-Clinton race, rather than McCain vs. (Obama or Clinton).

Good luck to the new US President. The rest of the world is watching.