The Obama Effect

      He is cool and confident, polite and pointed, telegenic and temperate and America has lucked in when they elected him as president. At home and abroad, he continues to follow policies that build hopes. In The United States his economic policies are taking hold and slowly but surely, the tide is beginning to turn; in Lebanon the pro-American coalition has won the election, even though the "experts" had pojected that the Iranian/ Syrian backed Hezbollah coalition would win easily.....Obama's speech in Cairo, reaching out to Muslims has had a positive effect; in Israel the right-wing, settler- influenced Netanyahu's government have been denied the bogeyman of a Lebanon governed by Hezbollah......Netanyahu will not be able to shift the discussion away from the peace process with the Palestinians, and in Iran, the voters may be tiring of the anti-Americanism (it certainly has been blunted by Obama's reaching out), of Akmadinejad and turning to the moderation of his challenger, Mir Hussain Moussavi.

      The extremists fed off of Bush's belligerent and seemingly anti-Muslim rhetotric. That is in the past. This is a new beginning with Obama ,and the anti-American card is not as easy to play. The reaching out to the Muslim world will continue with talks with Syria and Iran....engagement rather than confrontation, and with the withdrawal from Iraq. The war in Pakistan and Afghanistan still pose a problem, but even Osama bin Ladin is losing his influence....he tried to hijack the stage from Obama but it was a failure and there was barely a ripple from his latest diatribe. You can expect bin Ladin and al Qaeda to lash out and try and regain the lost influence but like a dying animal thrashing about in its last throes, it will be short-lived.

          The Obama effect is taking hold and the world is a better place.