By Paul Jacob, Deputy Political Editor

N SLIGHTLY over a week from today, Americans will be tripping over and congratulating themselves at the impending end of the Bush presidency, and the dawn of a new period of hope, and change, under President Barack Obama.

They will laud the historic election of a black man who, as New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof pronounced this week, will signal a rebranding of America to a world where - as his paper subsequently said when endorsing Mr Obama for the presidency - it needs to mend its image, restore its self-confidence and its self-respect.

Few will argue with that.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.