EDITORIAL - America votes

By most standards, John McCain is a man of exceptional courage and honor who has served his country well. It is the kind of service that deserves to be rewarded with the realization of his dream to become the president of the world’s most powerful nation.

But the Republican candidate suffers from the baggage that has been inflicted on his party by its current leader. The association with George W. Bush has been perceived to be so damaging that from Day One of the campaign, McCain has painted himself as a maverick.

His handicap is that his rival is in a better position to convince the public that he stands for change — specifically, a change from the policies of the Bush White House that have pulled down America’s standing in the eyes of much of the world. The Democrats’ Barack Obama has been helped along by the fact that the biggest concern of American voters on Election Day is not national security — perceived to be McCain’s strong point — but the economy, where Obama is seen to be more knowledgeable.

McCain, as one report put it, is no stranger to hopelessness. He himself has said that he has often been underestimated and has played the role of underdog before. There is still a hefty percentage of undecided voters who could send McCain to the White House. The race factor could play a role. His pitch for experience could have resonance among older voters. But his poll numbers have not been encouraging.

If the rest of the world could vote, Obama would win by a landslide. That sentiment is something that cannot be ignored by whoever wins the presidential race. After the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, the world felt America’s pain. Bush was re-elected on the wings of the terrorist threat. But his second term was marked by the erosion of global goodwill toward the United States. Bush was seen as a trigger-happy cowboy who was ready to ignore the rest of the world and act on his own.

That approach no longer works. If America is to maintain its leadership and regain the global goodwill that the Bush White House squandered shortly after 9/11, the next US president should learn to navigate the waters of multilateralism and globalization with dexterity and grace.