Barack Obama says in his new TV ad “America’s Leadership” that “We are a beacon of light around the world. At least that’s what we can be again. That’s what we should be again.” No word on when America stopped being a “beacon of light around the world.” Obama’s not known as a fan of the Clinton presidency. And in Dreams from My Father, he writes that he became a community organizer because he wanted: “Change in the White House, where Reagan and his minions were carrying on their dirty deeds. … Change in the mood of the country, manic and self-absorbed.” So it’s safe to assume that Obama thinks the pall of “Reagan and his minions” covered the world in darkness throughout the 1980s. Was America last a beacon again during the Carter administration? Is that what we can look forward to?
