As Barack Obama prepared to take office, Iraqis were risking their lives to seek public office, a Russian human rights lawyer was murdered for challenging the release of an Army officer convicted of murdering a woman in Chechnya, and an Australian novelist was being sent to prison in Thailand for criticizing that country's monarch.
Regardless of your political orientation or attitude toward the new president, the peaceful transition of power amidst loyal opposition is a striking feature of the American republic.
