By Peter Worthington, Ottawa Sun (May 31 2010): It was back in the spring of 2008, just after he’d won the Republican nomination for president, that John McCain proposed a “League of Democracies” to advance western interests and values, and to strengthen democratic alliances. Nothing much came of his suggestion during the election campaign, which he decisively lost to Barack Obama. McCain’s theme was interpreted as designed to emphasize his international credentials and reflect on Obama’s lack of same. The idea — even need — for something like a League of Democracies has risen again in light of of Libya and Thailand being elected to the UN Human Rights Commission, a mish-mash of 47 countries whose prime purpose, it sometimes seems, is to smear Israel and support anti-democratic institutions. [Keep reading here.]