Upon landing at Cairo's international airport, I see a billboard that quotes none other than Barack Obama saying: "American young people need to grow up more like Egyptian youngsters." Thus one year after their revolution do Egyptians bolster their newfound post-Mubarak pride through association with an American president. At bookshops across Egypt I find bestselling guidebooks on how to pass entrance tests for American universities. It's a jarring contrast, then, to return to JFK airport and see such popular titles as "The Post-American World," representing the fashionable tendency among U.S. political elites to talk down American standing in the Middle East.
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