I think so.

Part of the reason in my opinion many on the left have often looked to other reasons to explain religious extremism, is that it was President Bush calling to tackle extremism and I quite frankly don't blame the left for suspecting his motives.

But Obama has called for refocusing efforts on making sure elements in the Pakistani government that ally with the Taliban, don't try and recolonise Afghanistan. This is essential in defending our secular ally, India.

Obama seems to be developing a far more pragmatic attitude to foreign policy rather than an ideological one. Diplomatic, multilateral, but yet with an interventionist streak, I think it will affect the left. 

I'm suspecting it already has. Notice how in the aftermath of the Bombay tragedy, there were not the usual cries that the attacks could be blamed on Israel oppressing the Palistinean people, or our invasion of Iraq, or poverty. They attacked a synagogue and westerners for a reason. When a nightclub in our capital was almost blown up last year, it was because it was full of women. The reasoning hasn't changed, but our perception of it has.


P.S. I would add that I think that Obama's plan for a green economy will help tackle extremism. Ever since Roosevelt made the deal with the Saudis for an easy oil flow, extremists have profited of our addiction to oil. His commitment to nuclear disarmament is essential. The Kashmir dispute is a greater cause of extremism than the issue of Israel and we must disarm Kashmir if we want to deal a lethal blow to Al-Qaeda.

Whilst everyone's still taking stock, I'd just like to point out that I posted about Obama on Labourhome over two years ago (after Bill Clinton addressed Labour Party conference):
http://www.labourhome.org/story/2006/9/30/84240/5872

Unfortunately the main blog's disappeared so I can't prove that I predicted all this would happen (well before he announced his candidacy). You'll just have to take my word for it!

Deripaskagate risks encouraging the roaches for statefunding of political parties from the dark corners of the Palace of Westminster where they have been lurking since the effective collapse of the Hayden Phillips Inquiry nearly two years ago. The pros and cons are set out here.

Iain is supposed to be some kind of “political analyst” yet today wrote the following about Obama:

Isn’t this an amazing demonstration of what passes for political commentary in this wretched age of big mouth, misinformation, talk-a-lot-but-say-nothing commentators?

The other big moment of the night.  Michelle Obama's speech.  Sitting in front of me in the Big Tent are three Chicago natives whooping it up at her entrance.  And Markos (Daily Kos) is tapping away at his computer a few metres away, helping to keep the awesome live blogging of the convention on that site going.

Big cheers here when Michelle mentioned (and praised) Hillary.  Someone pipped up "that'll be the only story tonight ... she mentioned Hillary".  Cue lots of laughs.  Getting quite buzzy here; the speech is going down very well.  Or maybe its just the free beers kicking in.

There are maybe one to two hundred people typing into their computers (live blogging is the in thing), watching the screens around the room, exchanging wise words or jokes, or just soaking in this occasion. 

And wow with a crescendo of phrases that echo her husband's soaring rhetoric and campaign messages she ends her speech ... and the screams and applause continue here for a quite a while.

Update: the humanising of Barack, projecting him as an ordinary guy for those people who still see him as elitist and out-of-touch, has just gone into absolute overdrive. Immediately after Michelle's speech you had a live video link up with Barack.  Michelle and the kids on stage, Barack on the screen.  Sasha and Malia talking to their dad, we all went "ahh, that is so sweet" and laughed and cooed and cheered. It seemed so natural, so happy families, so cheesy, apple-pie 'American'.  It was a winner here in the Tent.  It seems to be a winner on the blogs. And I reckon it is likely a vote winner more widely; a step towards that goal of the Obama's becoming the First family. 

The crowd in the Big Tent is applauding and shouting.  The crowd in the Convention Hall (on screen sadly) has just gone wild.  Senator Edward Kennedy is making a personal live appearance on the podium. The atmosphere is amazing. Wow, this is powerful stuff, full of poignancy and meaning.  He's just promised he'll be on the Senate floor come January. He really is in superb form in his speech. Anybody out there still up in the UK, make sure you are watching.