American Notebook

29 April 2009

Travels in Obamaland: we take our two boys for their first holiday in the vast parish of St Barack, as his first 100 days come to an end.

Rolling south to Washington, Steve Merritt is on the Pod. He’s the most unfairly neglected singer, a quirky, lo-fi modern Sondheim, creating new Tin Pan Alley tunes that never quite leave your head. I know this having fallen for his soundtrack to the indie New York comedy Pieces of April (the last film Katie Holmes made when she was normal). So the children get an earful of ‘Washington DC, It’s the greatest place to be, It’s not the cherries everywhere in bloom, It’s not the way they put folks on the moon, No, no, no... It’s just that’s where my baby waits for me.’ Mr Merritt is elusive. From fan sites, it appears he is Boston-born, Buddhist-educated and partly deaf, finds applause irritates his tinnitus and so stalks off stage after his concerts. Also, he once told a critic who didn’t like all of his 69 songs album to ‘just turn down the volume: it’ll sound fine.’ That usually works for politicians one doesn’t much like, too.

How’s Barack really doing? We run across Obamatrons who believe he walks on water; and indeed that huge smile and confident gait really do come across as an agreeable boost to the spirits. The more sceptical venture that the adulation of the UK visit was not really to his advantage. It showed him as too dependent in his economic vision on one foreign ally, our very own Gordon, who is not — well, how to put this kindly? — futureproof. Apart from the small matter of the gazillion-dollar spending boost and its scary risks, the conversation keeps turning to Bo, the White House dog: who should really be Bobama. In Washington, a colleague’s daughter got so close to the First Mutt as to be allowed to stroke him. But no pictures allowed: Bo has his privacy needs too. And probably a lawyer as well, if it comes to it.

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John Rouse

May 1st, 2009 8:24pm Report this comment

This stream of drivel was painfully inane. What a total waste of Spectator space!

Will Buckley

May 2nd, 2009 7:11pm Report this comment

Yes. This is a new low.

Peter Haydock

May 3rd, 2009 3:55am Report this comment

God yes. Was she actually paid to write that?

A. MacAulay

May 3rd, 2009 9:00am Report this comment

One reads this and thinks; oh dear, I'm afraid she's not joking.

David Short

May 4th, 2009 4:12pm Report this comment

I'm normally a strong admirer of A McE, but I'm afraid I agree with the previous comments.

I suspect there's not a lot of proper editing at the Speccie office. It is also obvious that not much sub-editing is being done, and that talentless people are doing the headlines and intros without bothering to read the material properly.