PARIS -- The pair of black shoes, hurled at George W. Bush by a young Iraqi journalist at a Baghdad press conference last Sunday, may be seen as a bitter verdict on Bush's colonial war in Iraq - and, indeed, on his entire presidency.

The election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States was greeted with elation around the world with crowds taking to the streets to express their joy from Washington, D.C. to Nairobi. Congratulatory messages to the new president came pouring in from world leaders and from some rather unexpected sources as well.

In theory, America's two presidential candidates – the Democrat Barack Obama and the Republican John McCain – are poles apart on Middle East policy. Their rhetoric has been very different on Iraq, on Iran, on Palestine, on Islamic terrorism, on torture, and even, further afield, on Russian expansion in the Caucasus.

It is election season, which means over-hyped political conventions, negative TV ads and, of course, money.

In about six months the next president of the United States, either the Democratic Party's Barack Obama or the Republican John McCain, will have to come to grips with the war in Iraq. For the moment both men are off mark: McCain says U.S. forces should stay for as long as it takes – an unrealistic stance given the way events are going in Iraq; while Obama advocates a quick withdrawal – an unrealistic position as well.

Once Barack Obama shockingly unveiled his true and one-sided views regarding a Palestinian-Israeli peace settlement at last week's meeting in Washington of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, it became obviously clear that he has unwittingly disqualified himself as the much-promised instrument of "change" or that "we can" help bring about an honorable end to the decades-old conflict.