DIVERGING FROM AMERICANISM WASN'T EXACTLY WINNING OVER AMERICANS:

Barack Obama warlike? No, he's just an American president: Barack Obama's Nobel speech shows a shift in tactics and maturity in office (Toby Harnden, 12/12/09, Daily Telegraph)

[I]t was a different kind of Barack Obama who addressed an array of stony-faced Scandinavians in the marbled auditorium of Oslo's city hall last week. Most of his speech would have prompted little comment if it had been uttered by George W. Bush.

In fact, if the 43rd American president had accepted a peace prize by mounting a muscular defence of "just wars" and declaring that he had sent troops who "will kill" and "be killed" to a "distant land", then he would have been denounced for his bloodthirsty effrontery.

Obama did not just dispense with his previous apologies for American actions around the globe. He stated that "evil does exist in the world", that pacifism would not have halted Hitler's armies and that the "blood of [American] citizens and the strength of our arms" had helped secure peace for six decades.

While some have concluded that Obama had discovered his inner Bush or even gone neocon in Norway, what the world witnessed in Oslo may have been much more significant than that.

The Obama who turned up was not just a Bush but also a Ronald Reagan, a John F. Kennedy and a Franklin D. Roosevelt - in short, an American president who articulated enduring American principles, values and interests.