A new leader. A new era. Well done America.

With the American elections just eleven days away, many pundits are scrambling through polls and surveys to determine a possible winner. Ordinarily, Democrat nominee - Barack Obama - would seem a sure-bet given the polls. However, a disturbing level of racism is beginning to rise to the surface among the voting public.

Thursday night witnessed the official endorsement of Senator Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's nomination for the US presidential elections in November. The festivities at the convention, which resembled the euphoria at a rock concert, demonstrated the excitement Obama supporters have for their candidate.

Given the dominance displayed at the Olympic Games by China and America, we asking you (and ourselves) whether their dominance is a mirror image of our current geopolitical environment. In October 2007, Why Democracy? posed this question to famous athletes, authors and academics. Have a look at their responses...

My post yesterday ruminated briefly on the United States's declining global image, and so I was interested to read Thomas L. Friedman's column in the New York Times that reflected upon the potential consequences of a less-influential US.

Climbers brought the Olympic flame to the top of Mt. Everest, a location that China had no trouble keeping under control. Indeed, Kerry Brown at OpenDemocracy observes that, with the coming weeks entirely stage managed, China has acheived a PR coup by getting the bad news over with before the event, and as such lowering expectations.