Change he can show

It took Barack Obama’s visit to Downing Street for Britain’s protocol to kick in and remind us that he is as yet just the Democratic presumptive presidential candidate and not America’s president. After the cheering gatherings in Berlin, a rousing endorsement from Nicolas Sarkozy, and a matey touchdown with American troops in Iraq, Obama has pulled off that curious accomplishment: become the rest of the world’s candidate for America’s top job. About time, you may say. Given how much good — and bad — can come of the United States’ actions, it has always been a dark joke that every person on the planet must have a vote in its presidential elections.

Of course, Obama’s primary target audience is the American people. His rival, Republican Jon McCain, has made the commander-in-chiefish trips to Iraq such a well-rehearsed routine that Obama was believed to be weak on America’s security concerns overseas. In fact, even Hillary Clinton, before she finally suspended her campaign for the Democratic nomination, chose this as Obama’s weak point, crowding the airwaves with her “3 am” adverts to cast doubt on his ability to respond to a security crisis. It is interesting then to see that Obama has won the cheer on his tour not by sermonising on global threats, but by playing his cards as he does domestically: showing the possibility of a new way of leadership that eschews name-calling and includes detractors in its desire for change.

Is this empty sophistry or is it a substantive promise? We will know if Obama does, as expected on the basis of opinion polls, make it to the White House. But what is clear is that the superpower is not necessarily consigned to reckoning with an endless bout of anti-Americanism abroad. Obama has still to show himself up to working through the necessary paces of resolving domestic concerns on the economy while still honouring the spirit of globalisation. But if true change begins from the tenor of leadership, he may well be on his way.