espuelas

Ah to be in love again - and no, I am not thinking about Valentine's day.

During much of George W. Bush's presidency, global opinion polls showed that the United States had a serious image problem.

In some countries, we were ranked as a higher threat to peace than al-Qaeda.

The Bush Doctrine - the idea that the United States would preemptively wage war upon anybody who was "against the United States", whether they had attacked us or not - created the image of a global super power ready to enforce its will regardless of international law and its own American values.

Of course, Iraq comes to mind as the primary example of this strategy.

For many people across the globe, the idea of a benevolent America ready to rescue the world from evil (think World War I and II, the Cold War) was replaced by the seeming reality of a trigger-happy empire ready to impose "regime change" at will.

While the neo-Conservatives saw this policy as the natural outcome of a unipolar world - a world where no other power could even aspire to challenge the United States - the damage to our global image was significant. 

From global savior of last resort, we became just another heavily armed bully with a big stick.  And not many countries want to help the bully win. 

In fact, this arrogant image had contributed to a notable lack of support for the United States from such diverse groups as - local opponents of radicalized Islam, European allies (like France and Spain) and even pro-American governments in Latin America who had to mute their support of the U.S. in the face of hostile local sentiments, to name a few.

President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, have embarked on a fence-mending mission over the last year that appears to have yielded dramatic results. 

While our military might remains unchallengeable by any rival power, our "soft power", our ability to persuade and influence friends and allies, has increased.

A new Gallup/Meridian International Center global survey tracks a significant improvement in the United States' global approval ratings. 

According to Gallup:

Perceptions of U.S. leadership worldwide improved significantly from 2008 to 2009. The U.S.-Global Leadership Project, a partnership between the Meridian International Center and Gallup, finds that a median of 51% of the world approves of the job performance of the current leadership of the U.S., up from a median of 34% in 2008.

And here's the dramatic poll money shot:

And among the G-20 countries perceptions are generally up - with the exception of a couple of hold-outs who haven't yet heard how great we really, really are:

He is at turns praised and vilified - he created the bank bailout program, more commonly known as TARP, that helped stabilize the financial system at the end of 2008.

Without the massive, rapid and unprecedented Federal intervention the economy could have collapsed.

Now Hank Paulson is out with his memoir explaining what was happening at the time - and why his conversion to Federal intervention may have saved the country from another Great Depression.

The New York Times reports:

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says the country would have suffered Great Depression-era joblessness, near 25 percent, if the government hadn't arranged the financial system bailout.

Paulson made a stellar defense of that bailout, known as the Troubled Assets Relief Program, in an interview Monday on ABC's ''Good Morning America.'' He said that he and other top policymakers had no choice but to intervene when they did.

Here's Paulson explaining the crisis on ABC News:

The Washington Post reports:

As Treasury secretary, Paulson helped oversee the government's intervention, and his memoir is the first lengthy account of the crisis from a key decision-maker. The book offers a look at Paulson's thinking during those scary days, as well as his sometimes unvarnished opinions of other Washington characters, many of whom had central roles in managing the government's response.

Paulson writes that then-Sen. Barack Obama, at the time the Democratic presidential nominee, called him routinely, starting with the September weekend when the government seized mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Paulson was impressed with Obama as well as his vice presidential candidate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., but less so by their Republican counterparts.

After talking to Obama, Paulson called Sen. John McCain, in an effort to appear politically balanced, but the Republican candidate "had little more to say as I described the actions we had taken and why."

McCain put Sarah Palin on the line, but from the start, she and Paulson did not mesh well.

"Right away she started calling me Hank. Now, everyone calls me Hank. My assistant calls me Hank. Everyone on my staff, from top to bottom, calls me Hank. It's what I like. But for some reason, the way she said it over the phone like that, even though we'd never met, rubbed me the wrong way," Paulson writes. "I'm not sure she grasped the full dimensions of the situation I had sketched out."

In the best American tradition - where politics traditionally stopped at the country's shore -  former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are taking an active role in marshalling the world to help Haiti.

The human toll of this earthquake is almost unimaginable - and our responsibility to the Haitian people is permanent and unyielding.

Here are the former presidents on MSNBC:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In an op-ed-piece in today's New York Times, the two former presidents make a global call to action:

Our first priority will be to raise funds to meet the urgent needs of those who are hurt, homeless and hungry, and to ensure that the organizations and relief workers on the ground have the resources to do their jobs effectively. In the first two weeks, the needs are very simple: food, water, shelter, first aid supplies. Once relief workers have gone through all the rubble and every person — living and dead — has been recovered, once the streets have been cleared and communications and power restored, then Haiti is going to have to get back on its feet again.

It’s a long road to full recovery, but we will not leave the Haitian people to walk it alone. When the rebuilding begins, we will need even more support to make Haiti stronger than ever before: new, better schools; sturdier, more secure buildings that can withstand future natural disasters; solutions that address the inequalities in health care and education; new, diverse industries that create jobs and foster opportunities for greater trade; and development of clean energy.

There are great reasons to hope. For the first time in our lifetimes, Haiti’s government is committed to building a modern economy, and it has a comprehensive economic plan to create jobs. Haitian leaders have shown determination in confronting the challenges of AIDS, with strong support from private organizations and the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Per capita, there are more nongovernmental organizations in Haiti than in any other country except India. The members of the Haitian diaspora, in Miami, New York, Toronto and other cities overseas, are involved in and committed to the future of their native country. And the world’s attention is focused on this tiny island nation that has been overlooked for too long.