Learning to love President Obama

David

"Maybe we’ll get the radical Obama who fought Hillary - or the calm, consensus-builder we’ve seen in the last few weeks. No one knows for sure"

I don't know - it'd be quite easily to extrapolate. Look at why Obama positioned himself as he did in the primary, and then the general.

You'll see the same pattern repeated for other Presidents - they have to play for the base to get the nomination, but then play for the centre to get the vote. As Obama will want to be reelected next time, he'll most likely play for the centre again, with a bit of meat on occassion for the base.

Again, like most Presidents.

Nick Kaplan

Fraser; the day that Europeans start supporting America will be the day that America is no longer worth supporting. The only way the lefty media is going to have anything good to say about American policy is when America, which they think is crass in its individualism and its unwillingness to succumb to the liberal left's agenda, decides to fall into line and vote for one of their own i.e. Obama... Tomorrow will be a day to mourn the loss of the last freedom loving nation, this won’t make the right’s job any easier, the left are about to claim a massive scalp.

Matthew Blott

Fraser, you have been a notable exception but I think one of the reasons so many conservatives have been coming out for Obama is because they don't want to miss the party. Daniel Finklestein said everyone in Conservative Central Office were depressed not just because they'd lost in '97 but because the country was enjoying huge celebrations of which they were no part.

Craig Strachan

Excellent piece. I hope Obama will have a similar effect on sentiment within the U.S. - consumer sentiment not least!

TrevorsDen

Correct Mr Kaplan - but we have had liberals in the White House before. Clinton.

Clinton bombed Serbian Christians from 15,000ft (eagerly supported by Tony Blair) - where did that get them? 911. Up till then Bush was not bothered tuppence by the middle east.

Once a left wing Obama starts ton actually make decisions he will start to upset diferent parts of his constituency. And assuming he puts US interests first then left wingers will take any opportunity to complain.

Nicholas

Nick Kaplan is correct. But it won't be so much Obama as the hordes of Leftists eager to ride his coat tails that will do the damage - as here with Blair. The Leftist nut jobs will treat an Obama victory as a green light to pursue their barmy agendas even more determinedly. And it will be worse than Clinton because of the racial symbolism and passion Obama has stirred up.

An Obama victory will also, in some strange way, boost Brown and his pliant Leftist media, especially the BBC. There will be much hubris and triumphalism from the Reds and the National Socialists occupying our country.

The fact that Leftists do bad things is irrelevant because their PR machinery is so expertly cunning at concealing/spinning/lying about it and/or demonising others to take the blame/divert attention. Leftist chickens seem to come home to roost only in blood and fire after many years of painful misery. Expect the same here - expect the same in America. I fear that the end of days may be upon us.

Mark Solomon

Fraser, you and the other supposedly conservative hangers-on at the Obama love-fest are a disgrace. The whole line of your reasoning is wrong. Obama is inexperienced in foreign affairs. The strong men of the world (Putin et al) will take note and put him to the test as they did JFK and Carter. Nothing in his past suggests OBama will react with anything other than platitudes and appeasement. His campaign has revealed his tendency to say contradictory things to different audiences if that is what he thinks they want to hear - this is the sign of a weak man and weakness spells disaster. The Europeans will be encouraged to speed up rather than slow down an EU defence pillar by this weakness. Israel will understand it has to go after Iran alone as America won't support and cover for it as it has before. War and instability are therefore more rather than less likely with Obama as President, exactly as they were under JFK and Carter, and this couple with the weakness thing will give the void the EU is itching to jump into. Your analysis is simply wrong and based on wishful thinking. Apart from Melanie Phillips, is there anyone in the entire media class that hasn't drunk the OBama Kool-aid?

TGF UKIP

Fraser, as someone who has previously declared himself to be a huge admirer of the great RR, I fail to understand how you can so easily to write such crap.

I can only assume that you are too lazy or too "frit" to go against the media grain of your peers (or perhaps afraid to be booed on your next appearance on Question Time)

His past is distinctly murky but left carefully undisturbed and uninvestigated by most of the US media but what is available points to a radical black activist way to the left of mainstream America. The truly frightening thing then becomes, IF he's elected (and I'm still expecting this thing to be neck and neck with McCain)that there will be a triumvirate of Reid, Pelosi and Obama with a House and Senate far to the left of anything seen in previous times.

For a supposedly conservative commentator to be prematurely celebrating an Obama victory for such soft minded reasons as european appeasement I find immensely depressing but not, unfortunately, surprising.

Tanuki

We should not 'learn to love' - or seek to reach any accomodation with - our enemy.

OTOH if the US decides to elect a government that will hamstring their country's business with a slew of extra taxes, restrictions on energy-use and a requirement to fund socialised medicine - we should exploit this as an opportunity to outmanoeuvre them and move a free-market laissez-faire UK up a couple of notches in the global competitiveness scale.

George Mitrovich

As an American who has paid an inordinate amount of attention to British politics, as a faithful watcher of Prime Minister Question Time on the U.S. cable network, C-SPAN, it’s appropriate to remind readers of The Spectator American conservatism and British conservatism are not the same.

There is, of course, a reactionary element in Britain’s Conservative Party (Enoch Powell comes to mind), but many British conservatives would feel right at home in America as Democrats, not least David Cameron, who is reshaping the Conservative Party even as Mr. Blair transformed Labour.

What Bill Clinton started over here, what Mr. Blair initiated over there, represents a great centrist coming. But even though this movement began in the 90s, it remains the new look of politics today – and that change will continue under President Obama, and, in due, course, under Mr. Cameron when he becomes Prime Minister.

So, learning to love President Obama should not be that difficult for The Spectator.

But then, one never quite knows when the conservative mind might cramp up by the very idea of appearing to be accept an American Administration run by Democrats.

George Mitrovich
San Diego

Diana

In the UK,especially among liberals, there seems to be a 'justifiable racism' applied to America and Americans that would not be applied to any other people group without public outcry. As an American living in Liverpool for the last four years,I have come to dread the subject of my nationality. I hope an Obama presidency, whatever the other ramifications, will begin to improve the situation.

Fraser Nelson

Guys, the "learning to love" was (as Sarah Palin would say) my lame attempt at a joke. Mark, can I assure you I'm no groupie and I'm the proud owner of a "Nobama 08 - keep the change" bumper sticker. I'm simply pointing to the upside of his presidency: dealing a blow against anti-Americanism. I guess it depends how seriously you take this threat, and I take it very seriously indeed. I've just come back from the launch of America in the World, a new group designed to combat anti-Americanism.

http://americaintheworld.typepad.com/home/

TGF, I've been disappointing you a lot recently. What can I say? And if you think I praised Obama on this website in hope of going with the grain - then you underestimate your fellow CoffeeHousers!

Tanuki, you'll be pleased to hear I have heard Tory policymakers argue precisely this point about luring Wall St to the City.

George, I like to think the Atlanticist roots of the Conservative Party transcend factional considerations. Thatcher-Reagan was preceded by Macmillan-JFK and succeeded by Bush-Blair. I'm not going to start hating America because 54% of its electorate voted Democrat.

Nicholas

George Mitrovitch: "what Mr. Blair initiated over there, represents a great centrist coming."

He may have initiated it and he certainly spun it but it was never delivered. The reality of New Labour could never be described as "centrist". It is a weird and unpredictable mix of leftism and authoritarianism, more like national socialism in direction. There is nothing remotely pragmatic, reasoned or accommodating about it except where it is self-serving to party political ends.

What you are talking about, I fear, is cloaked leftism. Leftism dressed up to appear more palatable to the centrist mindset but in reality rather more slippery and dangerous.

I shall be pleasantly surprised if Obama turns out not to represent the cloaked politics of your "great centrist coming". Change indeed. But perhaps you should all be asking "What change?". We failed to do that in 1997 and now we have an unelected Prime Minister pursuing policies never put before the public in any manifest, shrouded in many layers of spin and making it up as he goes along. Centrist or not I'd prefer something a little more stable governing the nation.

Forlornehope

However, the left will quickly learn to hate a black President of the United States, just as the feminists learned to a hate a woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Ralph

Fraser,

An inexperienced, over hyped, unvetted, politician who has promised things he can't deliver and who hangs around with terrorists, criminals, and racists. What possibly could go wrong?

Oh well if Obama has to leave office there's always Joe Biden.