Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has done us all a favor: he’s put a damper on the recent bout of American exceptionalism.

Yes, we elected a member of a minority group to the presidency. And yes, we we’ve got crooks in politics. We are at times a great nation, but we’re still one of the nations.

In terms of corruption, the United States is among the cleaner countries of the world, although nowhere near the top. Here’s Transparency International (TI)’s most recent Corruption Perception Index, with the US at 20, between France and Belgium. Blagojevich’s (alleged) crimes will unlikely change this ranking.

But by trying to sell Obama’s senate seat (FBI page), Blagojevich put American political corruption on television screens and newspapers around the world. Here are screen shots from news sites in countries with relatively poor records of corruption, according to TI: This Day of Nigeria; Jawa Pos of Indonesia; Telesur of Venezuela; and China View of China. The first two are independent, the latter two funded by the governments.