His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan on Meet The Press yesterday morning:
MTP: "What's the image of the United States in the Middle East today?"
KING ABDULLAH: "Fantastic."
MTP: Really?
KING ABDULLAH: I have been following, by chance, President Obama around the world. I was in England a day or two behind him, I was in the Czech Republic. I just come from Japan on the way here to Washington. Wherever you go, and all the leaders that I've spoken to in the Middle East . . . this president provides hope. Now, there was tremendous sympathy internationally for the United States and anger after 9/11, but today there's a collective hope that there's a new America. And a new America means new values for, for the world. What everybody believed America to stand for is what I think Obama encompasses . . .
☞ "Hope unbelieved," wrote Jim Wallis, "is always considered nonsense. But hope believed is history in the process of being changed."
Lots of work still to be done, but it's nice to think we're headed in a better direction.
