Yglesias scoffs at the idea that Obama's Muslim background will improve the U.S.'s public image abroad:
Obama's not a Muslim. He's not a Muslim when people are trying to smear him by suggesting he is, and he's also not a Muslim when people are trying to suggest that he shares a secret connection with the Islamic world in a good way. Obama's just not a Muslim. His dad was from a Muslim family, but he didn't practice the religion and wasn't involved with raising his son. Meanwhile, the idea that there could be no Hussein-on-Hussein violence is belied by the fact that Iran and Iraq fought a vicious war with each other in the 1980s. Nor was there any love lost in the 1990s between the America-aligned King Hussein of Jordan and Saddam Hussein of Iraq.
Yglesias' main point, that Tom Friedman is off on a wild flight of fantasy, seems fine. But don't underestimate the importance of Obama's election to Muslims abroad or at home. Talking to friends representing both groups, and in my reporting for this piece, I found plenty of people who were ambivalent about America's public image but who thought that Obama would improve simply by being himself. Indeed, even though he is not a Muslim, being slurred as a Muslim has certainly helped him walk a mile in the shoes of Muslims facing discrimination. Of course, this positive opinion of Obama is not monolithic, and plenty of people abroad are suspicious of our new president, although optimism reigns on the whole. But the importance of the Hussein factor is restoring credibility to the idea that minorities can succeed in America and that someone with a Muslim name can represent America. It's not going to change our foreign policy (although it will approve our public image). But the phenomenon adds a helpful dynamic to our soft power that shouldn't be ignored.
--Tim Fernholz
