Thursday Briefing - Political Blog » Obama

Palin 2: Return From The Frozen Lands

Tom — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:33:50 +0000

With lines like “We need a commander-in-chief, not a professor of law”, its clear to see that Palin is back, and the anti-intelligence, populist, and over-simplified world-view, is back with her. It was nice to have a little break from that for a year, but I suppose nutters will always be around to try to wreck any progress that might be made, especially in US politics.

But how much danger does Palin pose? Considering that the audience for her speech were paying $500 to attend the conference, I’m guessing that they aren’t totally representative of the entire ‘low-tax-small-government’ group; though if those attending are what is hideously termed ‘thought-leaders’, they don’t need to be completely representative. Scott Brown’s election to the Senate was another sign that there might be a shift back to the comfort of conservatism.

I’m not hugely familiar with US politics, but I watch enough of The West Wing, read enough newspapers, and know enough about the generic game of politics, to conclude that Americans aren’t necessarily turning Republican, rather they are reacting to the perception that President Obama hasn’t lived up to expectations. This isn’t an original idea of my own, but Obama needs to do something populist but sensible, while keeping up the dull, but essential, work of governing. In short, he needs to remind people of the idea of “Hope” from his campaign. But as I said, US politics is not my forté.

An Obama Moment

Tom — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 12:50:03 +0000

It may be because I’m listening to the BBC World Service’s extremely thorough coverage of it, but there’s an awful lot of a furore about President Obama’s visit to Ghana isn’t there? It’s astonishing how a foreign leader—especially one of such a controversial state—can be so universally popular in so many countries. I can’t help but fear though, that he will be unable to do anything other than disappoint. He is the President of the USA after all, and that is where his final allegiance lies, not in the rest of the world. I’m liking the content of his speech to the Ghanaian parliament though, a refreshing change from what has come before.

Photo credit: worthbak on Flickr.

Obama’s Speech

Tom — Sun, 10 May 2009 19:53:57 +0000

I’m sure most readers of this blog have already seen the video of Obama’s speech to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, but I thought I’d share it anyway. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our politicians in Britain and Europe would have something like this? No matter what office is held, politicians should never take themselves too seriously.

An Official Obama Day (in Kenya)

Tom — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:07:48 +0000

“Flurry” is a good word to describe the process of the election results. Most of last night was spent waiting for projections, then when they eventually came, they came bundled together. Well there have been a flurry of motions in the Scottish Parliament offering congratulations to Obama today, and similar from world leaders and politicians, with Gordon Brown and David Cameron ‘fighting’ over how much they congratulate him.

The President of Kenya has even declared tomorrow a national holiday, and Russia has…

Ok, perhaps Russia is the exception. It’s moved Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad, to ‘counter the threat’ from the US missiles that will be stationed across eastern Europe. It would be interesting to see if Obama carries on with the defence shield.

Obama Day, Sleeping Day

Tom — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:51:36 +0000

Note to self: don’t arrange morning meetings the day after a US Presidential election. I’m not fully awake yet, but I’m certainly happy that I got out of bed and into a world that is slightly better branded than it was yesterday morning.

I’ll try to offer a more coherent post later on after I’ve had some more sleep and/or coffee.

Countries For Obama

Tom — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:03:40 +0000

Just listening to Analysis on the BBC World Service, the presenter from RIA-Novosti seems to be suggesting that Russia is for Obama. Anyway, just a short post, as I’m off to a long meeting, then to Oxford for a political weekend.

Two Blogospheres

Tom — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:40:28 +0000

There is a fair bit in US politics to dislike, but the adoption of the new campaign tools provided by the Web isn’t among that. I’ve been in awe of the individual campaign sites (though MyBO could do with renaming), national convention sites, and some of the more enlightened media outlets covering the election. Obama’s campaign in particular, seems to be really good at getting out bloggers and web-geeks to promote his message, as well as having a campaign site which focusses on engaging visitors.

Britain certainly has a reasonably good political blogosphere, but with the exception of Iain Dale and Guido, it doesn’t really have the same influence that the American blogosphere seems to have. Whenever the next UK general election is, it will be interesting to see if Britain is just lagging behind in following the rise of the Web in US politics.