Academic

MATT WELCH: Back To The Drawing Board. In just about every speech at their 2008 convention, Demo?

By Glenn Reynolds

MATT WELCH: Back To The Drawing Board.

In just about every speech at their 2008 convention, Democrats promised voters that a change in the White House would, in Barack Obama?s formulation, restore ?our moral standing? in the world. Replace the unilateralist cowboy at the top with a humbler multilateralist, and the path would finally be cleared to fix vexing international issues such as curbing carbon emissions and dealing with the mullahs in Iran. Like many of the party faithful?s long-nurtured beliefs, this hope has disintegrated on contact with reality.

?America is losing the free world,? said a January headline in the Financial Times. While that statement is exaggerated, the sentiment behind it has been gaining traction around the globe, especially in the wake of the climate conference debacle in Copenhagen. It?s not just that the less confrontational American president has been unable to deliver results. He can?t even get his phone calls returned.

Some find this development more surprising than others.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on February 10, 2010 (boomark / email).