They remind me, too, of the sturdy anti-aristocratic vision of the founding fathers . . . not least when I'm knocked back onto the pavement in Dublin by some cavalcade of EU bigwigs processing past in their limousines like monarchs.

Thank heaven, I think yet again, for the New World.

It's time to distinguish, as Americans themselves do, between the nature of ordinary life as experienced by millions of ordinary American people and as an ideal exported to billions more; and America the behemoth, crudely deploying its armaments and wealth. It's time to reaffirm the fabulous potential for good within America and between America and the world and to abandon the antiAmericanism that has come so easily over the last few years.

Americans themselves make a clear distinction. Last Sunday, CBS television in the States published the latest in a series of respected 4 July polls and, as far as Bush goes . . . and by this time next year he'll be almost gone . . . his job approval rating has slipped to 27%, the lowest number yet recorded in the CBS News Poll.

Short of a series of miracles, this president will depart the stage unmourned by a very wide variety of people, including his own party. It is likely that history will judge him to have been exceptionally unfitted for his immensely demanding office, due to a combination of limited competence and unlimited, faith-based self-belief. But the great thing about the US is that the handover to whoever comes next will be orderly. The same system which allowed Bill Clinton through, and Reagan and Nixon and Jimmy Carter and George's dad, will come up with its next surprise.

The CBS poll revealed a paradox surely attributable to the George W Bush presidency . . . that Americans at this time are far more worried about their country in the world as a whole than they are about their personal lives within it.

A very large majority think the war in Iraq is lost. But more generally, only 19% of Americans believe now that the country is "going in the right direction" . . . the lowest number recorded in the CBS News Poll since the question was first asked almost a quarter of a century ago. More Americans than ever before . . . 75% . . . think the country is "on the wrong track". In the winter of 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, as Americans rallied around the flag and the war on terror was beginning, sentiments were very different. Then, two-thirds felt positively, if vaguely, about the future.

Again, when looking at the standing of the US in the world at large, only 24% think the US is respected today, while 71% think it is not. And this is not a partisan view . . . majorities of Democrats, Republicans and Independents, liberals, moderates and conservatives all say it is not respected. And that's going to matter to all international relationships but particularly to the one in the news at the moment . . . the one with Putin's Russia. Fifty-four percent of Americans think Bush's foreign policies have made world leaders less likely to cooperate with the US . . . just 10% say the president's foreign policies have made foreign leaders more agreeable.

Yet though many think the founding fathers would be disappointed today with the nation they so brilliantly designed, the American Dream is still very much alive. In this week of Independence Day, most Americans are satisfied with their own lives. Above all, eight out of 10 of those polled say it is still possible to go from rags to riches with hard work. Not only that, but this classic 'Horatio Alger' ideal is shared by men and women (though men are more likely to believe it: 85% do while 76% of women do) and whites and blacks share it, as do people earning little money and people earning higher incomes (though people earning over $75,000 are the most likely to believe it). This core belief is surely the thing that stabilises the huge and complex society that stretches from sea to shining sea.

A question the poll asked was: "Compared to your parents' generation, are your opportunities better or worse?" I think if this question were put to Irish people today the answer would be . . . 100% better. There's no comparison.

American response is more nuanced. Nevertheless, each age group expresses optimism. Of Americans over 65, i. e. people whose parents went through the Great Depression, 76% strongly describe their own chances as better. Fewer people in the 45-64 age group . . . the baby boomers . . . say they've had better opportunities and the young have a substantial minority of pessimists. Still, overall, a big majority believe that life will be better for them, personally, than for their parents.

The kind of nostalgic lament you get in Ireland for a poorer, simpler era when you could leave the key in the door . . . though that was an Ireland that haemorrhaged emigrants who had no belief in themselves or their failed country . . . just doesn't suit America. Optimism is in its very heartbeat. We should borrow a little bit of that optimism and extend our sympathy and affection to the America that is already trying to get back from where it overreached and to learn from its mistakes . . . an America that knows it needs to regain its balance in the world.

Most people on the planet, given the chance, would move to America and would fill the icebox and head off on a picnic on 4 July, free and confident. That amazing achievement survives any American government.