Obama could be a great ally to a prime minister — but not this one

David Short

How much space is the Spectator going to keep giving over to Forsyth prophesying doom for Broon while backing abysmal Cameron?

It's boring, repetitive, unimaginative and uninspired.

Jim

If we look at reality we can see that the taxpayer is being looted, this money is being given to completely insolvent banks. Meanwhile the military industrial complex roles on, looting the taxpayer to fight a war which has no objectives, in a country which has never been defeated, because there is nothing to win in it.
Somehow you manage to take this sad farce seriously. I can cut you into a deal on some Florida property, but you must be quick, opportunities like this don't last long.

Ray

David - surely the whole thrust of this article is not the Spectator's opinions about Brown (well aired, as you say), but those of the new US administration.

When foreigners with no domestic axe to grind are convinced of Brown's imminent demise its time for New Labour to wake up and smell the coffee.

JONNY

'prophesying doom for Broon while backing abysmal Cameron?

Actually he isn't abysmal DAVID SHORT.
But I'm coming to think you might be.

Minnie

t's boring, repetitive, unimaginative and uninspired.

Aah! David, that damned truth! Always hurts doesn't it?

Minnie

t's boring, repetitive, unimaginative and uninspired.

Aah! David, that damned truth! Always hurts doesn't it?

Tim

Well said David Short. I really do get fed up with journalists writing things that they clearly do not know to be true - like "Gordon Brown has absurdly high expectations .. ". What a ridiculously overbearing and insulting comment - no matter what your political leanings are.

David Short

JONNY, tell me why Cameron is not abysmal? His job on the outside was as a PR for a now defunct telly company. He inherited his wealth as did his wife.

What are his achievements?

Or do you just love Old Etonians?

What you think of me is not important, not even to yourself.

David Short

Minnie. No.

Andrew

I don't particularly like Cameron either. It's just compared to Brown he starts to look great. As does pretty much anybody. Hell, the next government, the Conservatives, could field a bowl of cold sick as their candidate and it'd be infinitely more popular than Snotgobbler McDoom.

Andrew Cadman

When will our political and media class grow up and stop banging on about a mythical "special relationship" with the United States. Its just an unrequited love affair by the British elite who find is so desperately hard to accept the truth that we have no deserved place at the top table anymore.

You don't have to be unpatriotic, anti-American, pro-European, or even left wing to take this view: there is simply precious little historical evidence if any that America treats us differently from any other country.

When America does something against our interests, all those who believe the myth insist its just a "temporary breakdown in the special relationship". No..its just that America follows its own interests at every turn, and there is nothing wrong with that.

I really believe a great deal of the unfortunate anti-Americanism among the general population in this country is not primarily a result of the way America exercises its power, but our often craven attitude towards it. If our leaders were firm and realistic in their dealings with the United States then relations would be much more constructive - and who knows! They and the rest of the world may even respect us!

JONNY

Oh well, David Short now at last I understand: -
if you say Cameron is an Old Etonian, married money and worked in PR...
Stands to reason that must make him abysmal, now I come to think about it
but hang on a mo -
might it make a difference if he was just an Old Wykehamist or an Old Harrovian?

David Short

JONNY, yes.

Bruce Hudkins, MD Tulsa, OK USA

Obama showed his true classlessness with his embarrassing gifts to Brown. I am one shame-faced American today, let me tell you. I am still at a loss as to why supposed conservatives across the pond salivate over this ass clown Obama. He's an idiot, you know...the gift showed this. Bush would never have made this stumble, as he was too smart for that. Obama, not so much. You all should get over him. Really.

john problem

Can you imagine - he got 19 standing ovations? In a speech lasting 40 minutes. Would you jump up and down every two minutes if Gordon addressed you? One thought the members of the US Congress were all clear-eyed heroes of the West, the go-getting best and brightest of that proud nation. Apparently not. Just a bunch of carefully coiffed marionettes. Perhaps they are all hoping to be made a 'Sir' as the special relationship blossoms.....

David Bouvier

"Britain expended considerable amounts of capital in getting our officials involved in the Petraeus review of Afghan policy, a review that Obama has decided to trump — because he knows he won’t like its conclusions."

So already he is over-riding a succesful general to fit a war to his ideology. Change huh?

jon livesey

There is nothing wrong here, exactly, but it misses an important point, which is that Brown is not Britain, and the special relationship is not a sentimental relationship or one based on esteem.

Britain is America's partner in a whole host of defence and security related areas in projects which are not limited to particular administrations in either London or Washington, but which have lifetimes measured in decades.

Obama is being kind to Brown because he does not want to appear to be insulting to Britain. Obama is taking care to be civil because he doesn't want to get off on the wrong foot with the 10 Downing St he is really going to have to deal with, which will be Cameron's.

Tony Blair could have been an intellectual soul-mate of Obama, and so can Cameron, but Brown is a socialist, pure and simple, in American eyes, so all he will ever get from Obama is a bland civility, not real enthusiasm.

Obama cannot afford to exhibit enthusiasm for Brown because that would raise too many searching questions in Washington about where Obama himself wants to go. So Obama says "good doggie" and waits for Cameron.

John Corfield

You like so many media pundits admirably paint a new picture politically on everything Brown tries to do I understand you have a living to make.
However you forget the most important fact of any administration that of the natural cycle of birth, growth, death and decay that even Brown and his cohorts cannot avoid,
Governments are as mortal as man.
This Government has died, expired under the weight of failure perceived or real and Brown has engineered the decay to such an extent that whatever clever spin is put on affairs or actions the reality is he is a dead man walking.
The Electorate can be bamboozled and tolerate ineptitude and incompetence, backing leaders for so long but not indefinitely, the point of no return is here.
This Government as a functioning entity has deceased and is decaying daily, nothing you or they can say will change the fact that whatever he does what ever he achieves the time for renewal is needed if the body politic is ever going to be viewed as morally legitimate again and shows even a modicum of competent management for the voters to renew faith in the political system.
I view the extremist parties as being the benefactors, feeding on the ripe body of the corpse, growing daily on the nutrients of lies, sleaze,financial impropriety, hubris and self interest, profound economic and social failure that we now face.
Our real challenge is the survival of Democracy as the preferred method of Government and its battle against Totalitarian forces.