Much has been made of a President Barack Obama's ability to rebrand America's image favorably toward the world - especially global Muslim communities - with Andrew Sullivan's hagiography/paean being the most blatant.
Today though, I found another devotee to this idea in an unlikely person, Marc Sageman, former CIA agent, terrorism expert, and forensic psychiatrist. At an event at the Center for National Policy publicizing his new book, Leaderless Jihad, Sageman said overnight the election of Obama could "transform America's image in the world's eyes." Summoning Sullivan, he attributed this to Obama's mixed, international, and multiconfessional ancestry, especially his Kenyan and Muslim father. Furthermore, Sageman noted, foreigners believe in the America Dream and Obama is its fulfillment - evidence it's possible for anybody to succeed here.
Naturally, nothing good can last forever and Sageman says if Obama is indeed elected President he'll have no more than six months to enact policies that change America's image abroad. What those policies should be, Sageman didn't expound upon.
So I leave it to Guardian readers to give their opinion: What policies should a President Obama enact policy-wise to counter America's piss poor image across much of the world?
