We were watching the Democratic Convention on YouTube this year.  This is not something Taiwanese TV is very interested in.  All the speeches were magnificent: Michelle Obama, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, the Clintons!  How very wise of the Clintons, btw, to swallow their pride and give a whole-hearted endorsement of the winner.  And then of course there was Obama himself.  What to say?  It was surely one of the best political speeches I’ve ever heard.  He delivered both eloquent uplift and plenty of bread and butter.

I’ve occasionally been known to make jokes that can be construed as anti-American.  I figure being married to an American and having four American children provide me with a license.  And there is no doubt that there is a lot of American mismanagement to make fun of — the housing crisis, health care, education, inequality (and don’t get me started on foreign policy).

What is also true, however, is that America has great people.  Great, great, people.  And somehow or another, when times are rough, there always seems to be a great American ready to step up to the challenge.  Today that man is Barack Obama.  He is the man of the moment in exactly the same way as Roosevelt in the 1930s.  I honestly believe he will sort out a lot of America’s problems.  And I know the world will finally have an American leader we all can look up to.