My reply to Drezner viz America's standing in the world:
what was Rome's standing in Gaul? England, during the zenith of its empire, did the French like them? Who the hell gives a shit! All that matters for an empire is the successful wielding of power. If you can draw a correlation between that success and 'standing' in the world [and it may help to define with some precision what the hell 'standing' means - does it reference fear? intimidation? respect? esteem? a recognition of common cause and shared concerns? dependence? submission to the power most likely to secure the general interests of those that might judge us?] then ok, I could care about something like that, that might prove interesting - otherwise stop wasting peoples time. Is this what four years of Obama is gonna look like? The world economy is gushing down an epochal toilet and the guy's holding a pep rally on health care - it's frickin' unbelievable! Here's a clue, O! great leader: we're in the middle of the worst banking crisis in seventy years and your treasury department is still slogging along under staffed - I mean c'mon! You may wanna put that piece in place before you start fiddling with the fucking health care system!
