The G20 turned out to be a good indicator of how different President Barack Obama's perceptions of the world are different from George W. Bush and John McCain's visions of it.
Time's Michael Scherer writes, "Like Bush, McCain believed in something called 'American exceptionalism,' which separated the U.S. from the rest of the world, in moral standing, in military power, in economic might, and in the ability to influence other nations...Obama came at the issues of foreign policy from an entirely different direction. While he said his first role as president would be to protect and improve the United States, he placed his country in a larger framework of nations, not above the framework.
While McCain spoke about U.S. leadership (what 'we did for Europe after World War II'), Obama spoke about collaboration, of a 'new era of international cooperation,' of 'rebuilding our alliances,' of rejecting 'a foreign policy that lectures without listening.'"
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