In its endorsement of Barack Obama–you’d never have guessed–the New Yorker gets completely carried away:

The election of Obama—a man of mixed ethnicity, at once comfortable in the world and utterly representative of twenty-first-century America—would, at a stroke, reverse our country’s image abroad and refresh its spirit at home.

What? At a stroke? Surely not even a child would believe such a thing. There is little doubt that a President Obama, in contrast to a war-thirsty President McCain, would improve America’s standing in the world, perhaps even dramatically. But it is deeply silly and hubristic to think that his elevation would instantly, magically cure the world’s anti-Americanism.