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Showing posts from August 13, 2008

Can Obama survive realpolitik abroad?

Business Times - 06 Aug 2008 His internationalist vision and strategy to restore respect for the US will face big obstacles in a 'post-American world' By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT WITH the exception of about 10 per cent of voters, Americans know by now that if elected as the next occupant of the White House, Barack Obama - who was born to a Kenyan-Muslim father but is now a practising Christian - will not become the first Muslim US president. But is it possible that a future President Obama could end up selecting the first Muslim US secretary of state? That is a speculation that has been raised by The New York magazine. That respected weekly suggested that columnist and author Fareed Zakaria - who was born to a prominent Muslim family in Mumbai - 'has the perfect intellectual pedigree (Indian-born, educated at Harvard, conservative) for a fast-changing world, and the kinds of friends in high places' that could help him land the job that had once been held by t