As wonderful as it is to be loved by your former critics, you have to ask the logical follow-up question when the accolades start pouring in.

A little over 100 days into the Era of Hope and Change, the presidency of Barack Obama has already made a significant difference in world affairs. Gone are the days when many countries hated us. Today, we live in an Obamatopia where the US is held in high esteem by many of our former detractors.

It's a wonderful testament to the Hopie-Changie Teleprompting skills of our 44^th President. Now, instead of being thought about unkindly by Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Russia, Syria, Hamas, and other third world dictators and the terrorists who support them, these people like us. They really, really like us. 

It's only a rumor that the State Department has asked Sally Fields to be our new ambassador at large to the rest of the world. But, even if this embodiment of a narcissistic quest for public acclaim isn't given the broader recognition she is due, the template she ushered in is alive and kicking. The only thing is, as wonderful as it is to be loved by your former critics, you have to ask the logical follow-up question when the accolades start pouring in.  In other words, exactly why do these people like Barack Obama better than they did George Bush?

Now, I can think of a couple of reasons right off bat. Unlike Bush, Obama talks real good. And we all know how important it is to someone whose primary language is Farsi, Korean, Spanish, Russian, or some Arab dialect to know that Obama don't talk like no un-edjekated Texas hick.

If that reason doesn't convince you why the world loves Obama the same way it hated Bush, then there's always the people he surrounds himself with. His Vice President was the first one to recognize that Obama didn't belong in a 7-11 like the other Pakistanis and Indians he bought his morning coffee from. Obama was "bright," so he had a real future unlike those poor saps. And, he was "clean" and "articulate."  He didn't talk like a street thug or phony preacher like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.  To top it off he was a "nice looking guy" too — not to imply that Joe has a wandering eye for these kinds of things. Joe just knows a hunky-looking guy when he sees one, and is confident enough in his masculinity to point out the obvious . . . that Obama doesn't just sound different than Sharpton and Jackson, he's half-white. He looks different too.

Now, as compelling as these reasons are for understanding why the world loves Obama as much as it hated Bush, I think there's a third set of reasons to explain the global embrace of our new president. Each of these reasons is unique to the former US-hating country itself, so I've compiled a little list below of the significant ones.  Taken together, they paint a picture anyone can instantly recognize why the Obama foreign policy is so much better for the world than Bush's policy was . . . for the United States.

Please join me in singing Kumbaya as I recount why Americans are once again held in high regard by the same people who despised us when George Bush was our president.  As you do, please forget about the fact that these overtures have produced nothing of value to the United States, and in fact may have actually worsened the situation we face, because our focus is only on good intentions, not results.

Iran: The Policy

March 20, 2009.  President Obama sends a good will video to Iran saying the U.S. is prepared to end years of strained relations "if Tehran tones down its bellicose rhetoric."

The Reality

March 21, 2009:  Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he had seen "no change in America's attitude or policy, singling out US support for Israel and sanctions against Iran. "

April 9, 2009:  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran will continue its nuclear development, despite U.S. pleas to end the program.  He criticized the United States for trying to restrict its progress.

May 4, 2009. Iranian aircraft attacked three villages inside Iraq over the weekend. The airstrikes were Iran's first on Iraqi soil since the U.S. invasion.

North Korea:  The Policy

July 2007: Candidate Obama promises a new approach to relations with North Korea that will produce results where the Bush policies have failed. Writing in a 2007 Foreign Affairs article, he supports "sustained, direct, and aggressive diplomacy" with North Korea to achieve these new results.

The Reality

March 10, 2009: North Korea has promised to attack Japanese, South Korean "and American targets if the rocket that it is preparing to fire over Japan is shot down, in what has become an almost daily escalation of tension."

April 14, 2009.  North Korea vows to restore its nuclear facilities and boycott international talks on its atomic weapons program.

Cuba:  The Policy

March 8, 2009: President Obama said that America's 48-year economic embargo of the island had failed to bring change. "The policy we've had in place for 50 years hasn't worked the way we wanted it to – the Cuban people are not free," he said.  Obama expressed hope that recent actions taken by his administration – including lifting travel restrictions and remittances for Cuban-Americans – would be reciprocated, saying that the Cuban government needed to meet certain conditions to move forward with a dialogue, such as releasing political prisoners and reducing the amount that the government takes from money Cuban-Americans send to family members living on the island. But he said there were positive signs. "The fact that you have [Cuban leader] Raul Castro saying he's willing to have his government discuss with ours, not just issues of lifting the embargo, but issues of human rights and political prisoners – that's a sign of progress," Obama said.

The Reality

April 29, 2009: Raul Castro dismissed Barack Obama's policy changes toward Cuba as "achieving only the minimum," and said that it is up to the U.S. – not Cuba – to do more to improve relations.

May 1, 2009:  Fidel Castro blasted US President Barack Obama Friday in provocative May Day remarks, saying the United States only wanted Cuba to return "to the fold, like slaves."

Hamas:  The Policy

January 9, 2009:  The incoming Obama Administration is prepared to abandon George Bush's ­doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organization, sources close to the transition team say. The move to open contacts with Hamas, which could be initiated through the US intelligence services, would represent a definitive break with the Bush ­presidency's ostracizing of the group. "This is going to be an administration that is committed to negotiating with ­critical parties on critical issues."

The Reality

April 29, 2009: Hamas attacks on political opponents and suspected collaborators in Gaza have killed at least 32 Palestinians and maimed several dozen more, Human Rights Watch said. A 26-page report, "Under Cover of War: Hamas Political Violence in Gaza," documents a pattern since late December 2008 of arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture, maimings by shooting, and extrajudicial executions by alleged members of Hamas security forces.

Russia:  The Policy

March 4, 2009: President Obama sent a letter to Russian president Dmitri Medvedev pledging a new era in US-Russian relations aimed at easing international tensions.

The Reality

April 8, 2009: U.S. intelligence agencies confirm that the U.S. electrical grid has been penetrated by cyberattacks from both China and Russia.

May 5, 2009: Russian forces continue to occupy Georgian territory in violation of the Six-Point cease fire, and threaten to topple this US ally.

May 6, 2009:  Russia has pulled out of a meeting scheduled with NATO. U.S. officials say signals coming from Moscow are uneven and "it is unclear how far Russia wants to go in improving ties."

* * *

But hey, not everything is bad. Obama did order three Somali teenagers to be killed after holding the US Navy at bay for several days in their life raft. So, he can act decisively when US interests are at stake.

Meanwhile, the Taliban is threatening to topple the Pakistan government, which controls at least 40 nuclear missiles.  But that's nothing to get worked up about.  The Muslim world loves our new president, and would never think of using these nukes on us.

At least not until they find a way to get them over here. Until then, Israel — and US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan — will do.