Much has been written about how people all around the world are celebrating the victory of our Hussein \u201d\u201d Barack of Illinois, whose first name means \u201cblessing\u201d\u009d in Arabic. It is, indeed, a blessing that so many people in so many places see something of themselves reflected in Obama, whether in the color of his skin, the religion of his father, his African heritage, his being raised by a single mother or his childhood of poverty. And that ensures that Obama will probably have a longer than usual honeymoon with the world.<\/p>\n
But I wouldn\u2019t exaggerate it. The minute Obama has to exercise U.S. military power somewhere in the world, you can be sure that he will get blowback. For now, though, his biography, demeanor and willingness to at least test a regime like Iran\u2019s with diplomacy makes him more difficult to demonize than George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re a hard-liner in Tehran, a U.S. president who wants to talk to you presents more of a quandary than a U.S. president who wants to confront you,\u201d\u009d remarked Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment. \u201cHow are you going to implore crowds to chant \u201d\u02dcDeath to Barack Hussein Obama\u2019? That sounds more like the chant of the oppressor, not the victim. Obama just doesn\u2019t fit the radical Islamist narrative of a racist, blood-thirsty America, which is bent on oppressing Muslims worldwide. There\u2019s a cognitive dissonance. It\u2019s like Hollywood casting Sidney Poitier to play Charles Manson. It just doesn\u2019t fit.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
But while the world appears poised to give Obama a generous honeymoon, there lurks a much more important question: How long of a honeymoon will Obama give the world?<\/p>\n