Nothing makes me prouder of my country than this:

From far away, this is how it looks: There is a country out there where tens of millions of white Christians, voting freely, select as their leader a black man of modest origin, the son of a Muslim. There is a place on Earth — call it America — where such a thing happens.

That, from an NYT story on how the world sees this election. There is a place on Earth, call it America, where such a thing happens. And perhaps only in America, transcendent.

Tristram Hunt, a British historian, put it this way: Mr. Obama “brings the narrative that everyone wants to return to — that America is the land of extraordinary opportunity and possibility, where miracles happen.”

But wonder is almost overwhelmed by relief. Mr. Obama’s election offers most non-Americans a sense that the imperial power capable of doing such good and such harm — a country that, they complain, preached justice but tortured its captives, launched a disastrous war in Iraq, turned its back on the environment and greedily dragged the world into economic chaos — saw the errors of its ways over the past eight years and shifted course.

And that it can shift course. For ultimately I think this restores the world’s hope not just in America, but in Americans - in our capacity, ultimately, to do the right thing.

I am not one who believes the United States should be gallivanting around the world, inserting itself in foreign conflicts in which we have no direct stake. But we must lead by example; American ideals continue to inspire the world and give the world hope, as they must; and we must live up to those ideals, must struggle always to embody them.

As, I think, we just did.