Hillary to appoint Bill 'cheerleader for America' role as roving ambassador
Hillary Clinton has, at last, answered the question of what Bill's role should be were she to win the battle for the White House; she intends to make him a roving Ambassador with a remit to repair America's tattered image around the world, a role for which he would be superb.
And America's reputation throughout the world has never been more in needing of repair than it is now after the last four years of Bush's smug, arrogant rule when the world has, in effect, been told to "shove it" whilst Bush stampedes over international law and insists that the world will bend to his will.
Indeed, Bush has so tarnished America's image worldwide that China is now viewed more favourably than the United States in a majority of countries surveyed.
Indeed, Bush's unpopularity worldwide is so toxic that his re-election led to many people having a negative view of Americans rather than merely their leader.
More than half of people surveyed in a BBC World Service poll say the re-election of US President George W Bush has made the world more dangerous. Only three countries - India, Poland and the Philippines - out of 21 polled believed the world was now safer.The Bush presidency has been disastrous for America's image abroad and for America's image as a superpower. Before the invasion of Iraq America was seen as omnipotent, capable of using it's astonishing military muscle to shape any situation where it chose to intervene.
The survey found that 47% of the 21,953 people questioned now see US influence in the world as largely negative, and view Americans negatively as well.
"This is quite a grim picture for the US," said Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), which carried out the poll with GlobeScan.
"Negative feelings about Bush are high and are generalising to the American people who re-elected him."
Four years of impotence in the face of an Iraqi insurgency has altered that world view. The irony is that, by invading Iraq against world opinion, Bush has only succeeded in making the US look less powerful than it was before. And the longer he insists on "staying the course" - or whatever euphemism he is currently using to describe that policy - the more America's image is sapped.
So a return to Bill Clinton as part of America's worldwide image would do wonders to heal the damage that the Bush presidency has wrought. Clinton, unlike Bush, always worked on the principle that the US should act unilaterally only when she must, preferring multilateral action whenever possible. Bush, famously, shunned this suggestion and acted unilaterally almost as a matter of principle.
It was on this rock that the Bush presidency fractured and broke. Clinton was far cleverer than Bush in that he pretended to listen to the world and then pursued US interests when necessary.Bush made a point of not listening, insisting that the opinion of the rest of the world was a thing of no consequence.
It is hard for Americans who do not travel to understand the depth of visceral hatred that Bush engenders in Europe, so much so that during his visit to London a few years ago he was forced to travel by helicopter as this was the only way to safely keep him from the baying crowds.
Clinton never had that problem when he was president, where Europeans loved him. So Hillary's idea is certainly a good one. Though, to be fair, the Bush presidency has done so much harm to America's reputation abroad, that's it's hard to think of anyone - with the possible exception of Dick Cheney - who could do any worse.
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