The winding down of the dark age of W feels like something like a long night’s journey into day. (Apologies to Eugene O’Neill.) Granted, Republicans are doing everything they can on their way out to make sure the light at the end of the tunnel is indeed a train. (More on that later.) But the world’s response to the incoming Obama administration is a nice reminder of what it’s like to live in a world where people are actually glad to see us when we show up.

As John Kerry put it when he dropped by the United Nations’ climate conference.