Okay, I admit it...

...this is probably the best single-statement argument for regime change in the White House that I've come across. It's from John Kerry's speech at NYU on September 20.

In the dark days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy sent former Secretary of State Dean Acheson to Europe to build support. Acheson explained the situation to French President de Gaulle. Then he offered to show him highly classified satellite photos, as proof. De Gaulle waved the photos away, saying: "The word of the President of the United States is good enough for me."

How many world leaders have that same trust in America's president, today?

Now, this is not to say the US was ever a beacon of unquestionable veracity, but it is a measure of how much we've lost, of how dimished our standing is in the eyes of the world, of how much more ground we have to make up than we had before if we're ever to stand before the world as a model of the justice we proclaim in word but not deed.

But I have to admit, can you think of any leader, anyone at all, even Tony Blair, even John Howard, saying and actually meaning "George Bush's word is good enough for me?"