America's Clout Exhausted, Bush is Powerless in Russian-Georgian Conflilct

I'm sure there were thousands of chuckles around the United States this morning and perhaps even more in the rest of the world. As reports of President Bush's stern words to Russia about its "unacceptable" invasion of a smaller, weaker nation (the breakaway state of Georgia) circulated, I couldn't help but remember a time when America's reputation in the world was such that those words would have had real meaning.

Sadly, that is no longer the case. Bush has dissipated our diplomatic credibility to a near vanishing point. His cowboy mentality and go-it-alone "strategy" have crashed in the desert sands of Iraq and left America a pathetic shell of its former influential self.

The world is not asking itself this morning whether America's strong language presages action of a sort that might have an impact on the situation in Russia. Instead, it is asking itself, indignantly, "Where does this guy get off? Talk about a pot calling a kettle black!"

The only way to recover America's lost pride, influence, prosperity and peace is to elect Barack Obama President. The neocon Republicans have had their day and the devastation they leave behind may be too much for any one person or party to clean up in the decades to come.