“In an exalted phrase, the keynote speaker at the Republican convention reviewed the record of the administration, and asked, ‘When have we rested more secure in friendship with all mankind?’ That wasn’t in St. Paul, where the Republicans are gathered this week, but at the 1904 Republican convention in Chicago, when the speaker was Elihu Root, a past Secretary of War and future Secretary of State. His words were sonorous then, and they are haunting now. They will not be repeated this year, because they could not be. A senior American politician might have said something similar in 1920, or 1945 or 1960. But no Republican now — and no Democrat — could utter Root’s words without inviting utter derision. Today there might be a more bitter question: When has America rested less secure in friendship with all mankind?” (09/04/08)