ROBERT ATANASOVSKI/AFP/Getty Images

The 2008 campaign has already served one foreign-policy purpose: It has changed how America's Western allies see the country. Under the Bush presidency, anti-Americanism has reached new—and absurd—heights, and in too many countries the United States became pigeon-holed as the country of Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, and global warming. The Bush administration's public diplomacy in Europe has been nothing short of shocking. It is all too appropriate that the position of assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy is currently vacant (though nominee James K. Glassman will likely be confirmed soon).

The 2008 campaign has reminded the public overseas, and especially in allied countries, of the diversity and vibrancy of American democracy. It is hard for even the most hardened anti-American not to be impressed by the fact that the Democrats will nominate either an African-American or a women as their candidate, while watching this twisting and turning campaign play out gives the lie to the view that United States is some kind of corporate oligarchy.

Another piece of good news is that all three candidates with a realistic chance of being the next president play well abroad in a way that George W. Bush does not. Indeed, with a more pro-American leadership in Europe and the sting being drawn from Iraq by the success of the surge, the next president will have a real window of opportunity to chalk up some quick wins in 2009. The rest of the democratic world will be keen to show America that cooperating is worth its while.

The next president should seize this opportunity to get America's NATO allies to step up in Afghanistan. As Mike noted earlier today, there is a real danger that the progress of recent years is slipping away; a surge in European forces would be a powerful statement to the Afghans that they will not be abandoned again and that the Taliban will ultimately be defeated. A new president who shuts down Gitmo and works on climate change will amass a lot of diplomatic capital. He or she should plan to expend a large amount of it on Afghanistan as the trans-Atlantic honeymoon will wear off sooner rather than later. Many of the complaints about Bush are actually deeper complaints about core U.S. foreign policies that the next president will not change. No occupant of the Oval Office is ever going to accept U.N. primacy or other countries having a veto over U.S. policy making, for instance. But the next president will have a chance to make progress before the rest of the world realizes this.

James Forsyth is a former assistant editor at FP and an ongoing contributor to Passport. He now writes for The Spectator and The Business in London, and he has been covering the 2008 campaign from the ground.

MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP

LONDON — You have to take off your hat (or should that be baseball cap?) to David Beckham.

His career in Europe was in danger of coming to an undignified end. Dropped from the England squad, languishing on the sidelines at Real Madrid with none of the big English clubs interested in bringing him home, he crosses the pond to become the highest paid sportsman in the New World.

The brutal truth, which even his new and improved wage packet can't hide, is that Beckham is just too slow to succeed at the very top level now. During the World Cup, every England move slowed to a snail's pace once Beckham got involved. But his dead ball skills are still world class, good enough to allow England to grind out some results they barely deserved.

Beckham's L.A. mission is two-fold: To establish football as a major U.S. sport, and to put Posh n' Becks on the list of A-list celebrity couples. I'd wager that he'll have more success with the former than the latter. There's a large untapped market for "soccer" in the U.S., as the interest in the World Cup and the sellouts that accompany the visits of major European teams to the States demonstrate. MLS has gotten better since I sat through my first dreadful game in 2001, but it's still neither good enough nor sexy enough.

Beckham's star power should change all that. He excels in the areas of the game that are easiest for new fans to appreciate. MLS now must carry on importing good young players from the rest of the Americas, as these older star players can't carry a team on their own and will need someone to do their running for them.

Celeb-wise, I fear that Beckham is just too dull to make it big in LA (anyone who has heard him being interviewed will know where I coming from). The hold of the Beckhams over the UK media was very much a product of the times: The most iconic sportsman in the country matched up with a member of the zeitgeist-defining pop group. And Becks—with his sarongs, grooming products and conspicuous love for his children—seemed to sum up the new man phenomenon. I don't see what gives him a unique selling point in the American market today. Indeed, his return to the front pages of the British tabloids this week, giving Kate Middleton a deserved break, had the distinct whiff of nostalgia about it. As for Victoria (Posh), skinny, fashionable women who did something once are two-a-penny in Hollywood.

Thinking about Beckham's lucrative American swansong, one can't help but wonder if another Englishman coming towards the end of his career isn't contemplating doing something similar?

AFP

LONDON — Last night's speech was at 2 am U.K. time, and thus too late for the British papers to give it the full treatment. Bizarrely, though, there seems to be less general interest in Bush's last heave than there was in either the Iraq Study Group report or the U.S. midterm elections.

The government's response has been to welcome Bush's new plan, but stress that it doesn't change anything for the British, as Basra is different from Baghdad. Indeed, the Daily Telegraph reports today that 3,000 British troops—almost half the current deployment—will be withdrawn by May.

The British position is about U.K. politics, not Iraq. The long-awaited handover from Tony Blair to the Chancellor Gordon Brown is expected to be announced in May and take effect in June. Both men would like British withdrawal from Iraq to be clearly underway by then—Blair doesn't want to leave with Iraq unresolved and Brown doesn't want the war it to tarnish the beginning of his premiership. An opinion poll earlier this week illustrates just how unpopular the mission now is; 60 percent want British troops withdrawn as soon as possible, and more people hold Bush responsible for the continuing violence in Iraq than al Qaeda, Iran, Syria and Saddam combined.

Developments in Iraq are unlikely to stick to the Blair-Brown timetable, however. First, if the U.S. push in Baghdad is successful, the Shiite militias are likely to step up their activities in Basra to demonstrate their enduring strength. Second, if it isn't just rhetoric when Bush says that the United States "will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria" and "seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq," then the Brits—who patrol the southern border with Iran—will find themselves on the front lines of this effort and the receiving end of the Iranian response.

Winners

Conspiracy theorists: With partisan rancor at a new high and fears of chaos on election day, expect any surprising results to be met with angry shouts of "FRAUD."

Chinese diplomacy: Gets North Korea back to the table and charms African leaders at a lavish summit in Beijing.  

Sacha Baron Cohen: Borat opens to rave reviews. He can name the price for his next movie, I like!

Green taxes: British politicians fall over themselves to welcome the aptly named Stern Review. Maybe green is the new Brown?

Losers

Tennessee couch potatoes: Between Aug. 1 and Oct. 15, local TV ran 12,007 ads by Senate candidates Bob Corker and 7,239 by Harold Ford.

John Kerry: Just in case anyone needed reminding of why he lost.

Georgian pensioners: Gazprom plans to double gas prices next year.

Utube: Universal Tube & Rollform website, utube.com, keeps crashing. And it's not being overloaded by people trying to buy actual tubes.

The President today declared a major disaster exists in the State of Missouri and ordered Federal aid to supplement State and local recovery efforts in the area struck by severe storms during the period of July 19-21, 2006.”

As The Note notes its, "Interesting timing to declare federal aid on its way to the Show-Me State just as the President plans a day of campaigning there." Don't rule out federal assistance for the New Madrid earthquake before Tuesday. That happened in 1812, but, hey, better late than never.

This bad:

If the Democrats take control of Congress in November, do you think the threat of terrorism against the United States would increase, decrease, or stay about the same?

Increase	Decrease	Same	DK/NA
22	18	57	2

If the Republicans keep control of Congress in November, do you think the threat of terrorism against the United States would increase, decrease, or stay about the same?

Increase	Decrease	Same	DK/NA
27	14	57	2

If the Rove and Mehlman machine can make the Republicans survive this election, it really does deserve its status as Washington's favorite caveat.  

Support for a sovereign, democratic, and prosperous Lebanon is a key element of U.S. policy in the Middle East. We are therefore increasingly concerned by mounting evidence that the Syrian and Iranian governments, Hizballah, and their Lebanese allies are preparing plans to topple Lebanon's democratically-elected government led by Prime Minister Siniora."

The WH statement follows the anti-Syrian, Lebanese politician Walid Jumblatt's meetings with Cheney and Rice earlier this week. There are concerns that Hezbollah is planning a series of rallies in the coming days to put pressure on the government to increase its representation in the cabinet. On a related note, there are also fears about the pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's attempt to block the formation of an international tribunal to try those involved in the assassination of Rafik Hariri. The tribunal is seen as the best way to undercut Syrian influence in Lebanon.

That noise you just heard is Karl Rove's reaction to John Kerry saying:

You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't you get stuck in Iraq."

It is the kind of quote that the Republican machine feeds on. Personally, I buy Kerry's explanation that he was trying to insult Bush's intellect - not that of the troops. Any politician knows that bashing the men and women who serve is the dumbest thing a politician can do and Kerry himself is a veteran. Kerry also seems slightly obsessed with the question of whether he or Bush is smarter. Indeed, one can't help but wonder if he didn't release his Navy records during the campaign because they revealed that he actually got slightly worse grades at Yale than Bush did.

Nevertheless, the Republicans are going to run with this: note McCain's demand for an apology. Today there must be even fewer Democrats keen on Kerry '08.