I'm going to begin my participation in this fine blog with a question. I know I got the idea from somewhere else, and I'm really hoping it wasn't here...

The new President, whoever he/she is, will have many opportunities in the first months of office to set the precedent for his/her tenure. One of the most important of these, at least symbolically, will be the selection of the country for the first international visit as head of state. So...

Where would you go?

I'll start.

I'd head to India. It's the world's largest democracy and has the second largest Muslim population of any country. It's one of a handful of countries poised to join the ranks of the top-tier economies (along with Brazil, China, and Russia.) Due in part to a lack of domestic natural resources (as well as being somewhat shut out regionally by China), it's become a global leader in alternative energy, primarily wind power. A visit by a newly-elected President to India would show the world that the U.S. is willing to adapt to the changing global power structure, but that the U.S. will have a very decisive say in the direction of that change. A visit to a democracy, even one that struggles at times, would show that the U.S. is not ethno- or Euro-centric, but IS opposed to political oppression (read: China.)

I had considered France, to shore up what should be a strong alliance, or to Canada, to throw a bone to our number one trade partner. But I decided that these were too "global North", and that a Presidential visit in 2009 should reflect the direction of the 21st century, which seems to be heading toward the rapidly growing (in numbers, economy, and power) global South.

What do you think?