Edited sentence: Close to his political base, open to debate, and quick to tell a joke, he has established a close rapport with party members.He has defined the PUK as an internationalist party and Talabani has made a point of publishing in Arabic.He has reached out to Turkey and to the Sunni Arab community in Iraq to build bridges.His elevation to the presidency of Iraq is recognition of his fifty years of service to the cause of freedom and democracy.Talabani is a secularist and a believer in democracy, inter-ethnic harmony, equality and women’s rights.Talabani's actions have stood for progressive politics, for a society based on social democratic values with a market economy