Magic and Realism

By ROGER COHEN
NYT

So the next new thing is “smart power.” The phrase was sprinkled through Senator Hillary Clinton’s confirmation hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It means using all the levers of influence — diplomatic, economic, military, legal, political and cultural — to get what you want.

I’ve nothing against smart power, a blend of soft and hard. It’s better than dumb power, of which we’ve had a dose.

Dumb power estranges friends, privileges force, undermines United States credibility and proclaims war without end.

But what I want from the Obama administration is something more than Harvard-to-the-Beltway smarts. I want magical realism.

Seldom has so much hope confronted so much anxiety as in these five days before Barack Obama becomes the 44th president and the first African-American one.

(More here.)