This week will witness a change of guard at the White House. Regardless of who wins, their first task will be to distance themselves, in the eyes of both domestic and foreign terms, from the Bush administration, which it is now generally accepted, with the occasional exception, to have been a disaster. Of course this will be much easier for Barack Obama than for John McCain, whose campaign were not exactly overjoyed with their recent endorsement from Dick Cheney.

We should be careful, though, not to imagine that the world will instantly be a nicer place come Wednesday. The issues we associate with the Bush presidency will not disappear with him. As Nick Cohen points out, the push to have creationism taught in schools (as much an attack on secularism as on science) goes on. Indeed, the appointment of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate was a calculated move to reignite the culture wars in which the issue of creationism plays such a central role.

This blog will, in the next week focus on the free expression issues that face the United States and its new president. But we will also be bringing you other news, debates and ideas about free expression and censorship, plus sneak previews of articles from Index on Censorship’s quarterly journal — the upcoming issue of which, unsurprisingly, focuses on the lessons of the past eight years for America.