Most surprisingly of all, he has articulated a clear and bold approach to governance in recent months that privileges issues like pluralism and universal health care in a way that many, even in his own party, have found surprising (and refreshing).
It was a bold experiment in international governance and the rule of law, aimed at replacing nationalism and the use of force.
Meanwhile, just as Europe's bold experiment in international governance is faltering, Russia is emerging as a dangerous rival to the EU, one that has global geopolitical ambitions and is willing to use force.
Perhaps if they made some bold decisions about community governance, then open-sourced the code for feature development and security auditing (closer to the approach of now-nearly-defunct Diaspora), they could hope to accomplish some of the above.
During the eurozone crisis he has urged the European Commission to take bolder action, exercise economic governance and steer the member states closer together.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who leads President Bush's review of corporate governance, has suggested bold steps to make executives more accountable: disallowing the use of insurance money to cover legal costs linked to their misconduct, for example, and lowering the legal standard to negligence, instead of recklessness, to punish executives who mislead shareholders.
To offer a real viable response, Western countries must undertake necessary and bold domestic reforms to enhance governance efficiency and economic competitiveness, ensure transparency, beat corruption and keep democratic institutions strong.
The visit, considered as a great success by most commentators, revealed the paradox of Turkey: A global aspirant with a bold new vision for global governance in the post-Cold War era yet internally driven with questions about a new constitution, its Kurdish population, and freedom of expression.
With a bold departure from the UN governance model, a new and more credible global health regime could be built upon such a convention, by transcending narrow State interests.
