'Who should be the world's most powerful person?'

"As Iowa's caucuses start a global ball rolling, my dream team is President(s) Clinton and Vice-President Obama". Some foreign perspective:

In the real world, that most powerful person will be an American. . . .

As between Democrats and Republicans, the choice for the world's floating non-voters is, this time around, what Americans call a "no-brainer". After two terms of one of the most incompetent and unsuccessful administrations in recent history, it's time for a change. Were there an outstanding Republican candidate, this might be a closer call; but there isn't. John McCain has a remarkable life story, which commands respect. He is probably too old, and perhaps too erratic, to be a good president. All the others have major weaknesses, whether of character (Giuliani), ideology (Huckabee) or backbone (Romney). . . .

How could anyone with an ounce of judgment vote for a man who says, as Mitt Romney has said, that "we ought to double Guantánamo"?

That leaves the Democrats. I started 2007 as an enthusiastic Obamaite. I go into 2008 a sober Clintonian. I continue to believe that Barack Obama is the only candidate who could change the United States' image overnight. It is now consistently less popular across the globe than at any time since international polling began. Obama personifies those aspects of American society that even some of Washington's fiercest critics admire, and he has some good ideas too. The trouble is, the more I watched him last year, the more convinced I became that he is not yet ready for the job. . . .

In an increasingly dangerous world, with this new year ushered in by a nuclear-armed Pakistan trembling on the verge of anarchy, we can't afford that blunder-time any more.

The point about the Clintons is that they know the mistakes to avoid because they've already made most of them. They've learned the hard way. . . .

Hillary herself has become, at 60, absolutely formidable. Superbly briefed on every issue, almost word perfect, scarcely ever putting a foot wrong, tried and tested as few human beings have been. At a cattle auction site in Ames, Iowa, the other day, she joked that they could "look inside [her] mouth", as farmers do with cattle, if it helped them to make up their minds. And the truth is that if anyone in the world has been "looked inside the mouth", it is the Clintons.

Is she simpatica? No. At least not as a public persona. The outward warmth is all with Bill. Frank? That's not exactly what the record suggests. Shall we say, as honest as a lawyer. But we don't need the most powerful person in the world to be nice. We need her to be good at the job - grownup, knowledgable, responsible, tough, a safe pair of hands after eight years of a blunderer. . . .

What the return of the Clintons would not do is to work an Obama effect on America's image abroad. Instead, millions around the world will ask: what kind of a democracy is it in which the elected president is always called either Bush or Clinton? So we need Obama too. Give him a few more years of hard experience, such as Hillary has garnered, and he could make an inspirational president. And what better way to gain that experience than by serving as her vice-president? . . .

Full story here.