Learning to love President Obama

Only two days to go before we find out which candidate for the American presidential campaign will be suing the other for voter fraud. Or, more likely, Barack Obama will carried home by an historic turnout – and, I have to confess, I will be quite pleased by that result. Not because I’ve succumbed to his charm, but because anyone on the centre-right who argues that America is a force for good in the world will have their task made a lot easier by President Obama.

I’ve long regarded anti-Americanism as a belief system all in itself – and one of the most underrated and menacing forces in the world today. As Fareed Zakaria said a few years ago, it fills the void left by defunct belief systems in the post-Communist world – and it goes way beyond the snide comments at Islington dinner parties. Whether it’s simple anti-capitalism or Islamist agitation, you can see anti-Americanism at large whenever the enemies of the open society gather.