Lion will sleep with lamb, etc

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (October 26, 2008) - Goodbye To All That

Andrew Sullivan is feeling the love of President Messiah already, it seems:

Sometimes, when the world is changing rapidly, the greater risk is caution. Close-up in this election campaign, Obama is unlikely. From a distance, he is necessary. At a time when America’s estrangement from the world risks tipping into dangerous imbalance, when a country at war with lethal enemies is also increasingly at war with itself, when humankind’s spiritual yearnings veer between an excess of certainty and an inability to believe anything at all, and when sectarian and racial divides seem as intractable as ever, a man who is a bridge between these worlds may be indispensable.

My guess: Obama will be tested by an international crisis designed to take advantage of him, as Biden predicted, within 6 to 12 months. He'll either want to talk-talk, as he has said he will, and fail; or he might surprise us, throw some military might around, and end up doing pretty much what McCain (or Clinton) would have done anyway.

What I don't see happening is the entrenched enemies of the USA and Israel suddenly seeing the mistake of their ways and world peace ensuing.

Nor do I see any particular reason for an outbreak of sweetness and light in the culture wars within the States. Lefties will crow triumphant, as they did in Australia after John Howard's defeat, yet it will be quite on the cards that a new Republican candidate will look like a plausible alternative again by the next election (as appears is happening in Australia).

Just my guesses, anyway.