Princess Obama

Dhimmier&Dhimmierer

A perfect analogy! Like Diana, Obama has huge flaws that his deluded acolytes refuse to see, because he's more a mirror for their own narcissism and self-regard than a person in his own right.

Maurice, MD

Right on every point but one -- Please do not malign Bambi by comparing him to Obama. Bambi was innocent -- Obama is corrupt. Bambi grew up to be a noble stag. Obama will never grow up.

Mark

"the great John Bolton"???? I ask you? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Bolton#Criticism

Punishment of Luxury

I'm so going to enjoy your pain when Obama is President.

Robin Davies

Mark, You quote Wikipedia as a reliable source and expect us to take you seriously? Come on....

kate b

I hate to say it, but Hitler new how to play the masses to his advantage. In Obama's case he uses rhetoric which will gain the coloured vote, the Muslim vote and those who feel oppressed in any way; and let's face it, everyone has been taught to feel oppressed by the 'do gooders' in 'education'. Yes, it is fortunate for leaders that the masses don't think, and yes, they are suckers for a big lie, kept simple and said ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

Barrie in Adelaide

The tragedy is greater because the US media is wholly complicit in boosting Obama [or the execrable Shrillary] based on nothing more than an irrational hatred for GWBush. Diana was a non-entity compared with the US presidency, so the threat of ODS is infinitely more serious. Those who make comparisons with the empty charisma of Adolf Hitler are not far from the mark. Scary times.

Douglas

"The main characteristics of DDS are the replacement of reason, intelligence, stoicism, self-restraint and responsibility by credulousness, emotional incontinence, sentimentality, irresponsibility and self-obsession" Now there's the pot calling the kettle black...

Robin

If Obama is against John Bolton ("the great John Bolton" Ha Ha Ha!) then He's My Man!

field

No, no, no. Princess Diana was a force for good and most definitely added to the sum of human happiness. She touched ordinary people because she seemed to have a genuine concern for the unfortunates of the world. She most definitely did a great deal to take away people's fear of AIDS patients. In her personal life she overcame personal sorrow, a narrow upbringing and early betrayal at the hands of her husband to grow as a person, to gain confidence and to become an effective communicator. These were real achievements. At the same time she was impossibly glamorous and princess-like which appealed to people of course. What was scandalous about her death was not the outpouring of genuine grief but the way the elite tried to smother this natural emotion. This is shown most symbolically by the piddling little "fountain" that is her alleged memorial. Had DDS really won then her memorial would have been something much more appropriate. It doesn't matter, you can't kill her memory in the hearts of ordinary people. Obama is nothing like the Diana phenomenon. Firstly all US Presidential candidates deal in what I would call "hysterical hope". GW Bush has done. Clinton did. Reagan did. JFK did. Even someone as hard boiled as Nixon did. It's what Americans like. That said, I agree he is stupendously light on policy and I personally object to the racist creed of the Church he belongs to (a Black African supremacist church with links to the Nation of Islam - links which might yet become clearer in due course). I also don't think we've heard the whole truth about his education and upbringing in Indonesia. The fact that he opposed the war in Iraq means he was a "Keep Saddam" man which in itself was shameful. I think he should be opposed for his "lightness" of policy, the dubious nature of his religious beliefs and his wrongheadedness on Saddam. Not because of any forced and fatuous comparison with Princess Diana.

guy montag

go obama so what of he was against th great bolton the real reason you don't like him is that he is not a rabid supporter of israel boo hoo mel boo hoo

Verity

When Obama first came on the scene, I had an eerie feeling that we had seen him before. I agree that he is part Diana Syndrome. But in his lack of substance, his dependence on catch phrases and vague promises, plus a certain evasiveness, he is also a psychological ringer for Tony Blair. And, of course, Blair and Diana were two sides of the same coin - empty emotionalism.

Babbie

The mass media in America have assiduously avoided discussing Obama's positions on anything more substantive than "change" and probably will continue to do so until blogs and/or talk radio force them to respond. They prefer to cover primaries like horse races. Apparently many Americans are satisfied with that. Obama continues to remind me of a weird combination of Adlai Stevenson and Stan Laurel.

Verity

Field - Diana ponced about having "emotional intelligence", like Blair, and, I am sure Obama, but she had never done anything to occasion the Latinesque grief that got stirred up by her death. The woman was driving aimlessly round Paris, with her rich boyfriend in the off season, looking for something to engage their interest. She was very elegant and stylish, as is Obama, but other than that, she seemed to be lacking substance, as does Obama. Still, a marked lack of substance hasn't hurt Blair.

Nathan

I see that people like 'field' are not content to keep their execrable slurs Stateside. What more, exactly, is there to say about his upbringing in Indonesia, than that Fox News falsely accused him of having attended a 'madrassah', and that news organization was then shown up when CNN actually sent a news team to the school in question, finding it to be an innocent, mixed-religion elementary school? Does it really need to be said that everything else field says about Obama is equally false? Or that those comparing him with Hitler have, by any rational measure, already lost the argument?

morbo

Current Australian politics also reminds me of Diana Derangement Syndrome, with the emotional outpouring over the governments facile apology to the "Stolen Generations". Sigh.

Frank Pulley

field: Diana was as nutty as fruitcake; hardly surprising given her pedigree, her marriage and her concurrent and subsequent choice of disreputable screwing partners. Your gushing mini-biog is emetical. Do you read Barbara Cartland for inspiration when you are not pushing prolix piffle on this patch? I read your comment twice, just to make sure you weren’t being ironical, but have concluded that you really meant it. It almost spoiled for me Melanie’s delightful allegory on the resonance between Mrs Wales and Obama the Charmer. Classic! And oh so true...

Lee Jakeman

If elected, Obama will soon find himself having to face up to reality. When that happens, things could go either way. He could either turn out to be a major disappointment and anti-climax, a la Sarkozy in France, or he could turn out to be the type that matures quickly in office, going on to become a great president. Does anyone really know?

field

Nutty as a fruit cake? And Mother Theresa wasn't? You can criticise her shallow lifestyle all you want, just as I could criticise Mother Theresa's lack of intellectual rigour. Truth is both had saintly qualities that inspired devotion. Melanie's cerebral puritanism is all very well - for cerebral puritans. But most people are neither cerebral nor puritanical. Hence their delight in Diana, who combined the glamorous and the Godly and brought joy to their lives. Obama's a politician. A completely different kettle of fish. As for "lies" about Obama. The comments about his Church are completely true. It is a Black supremacist outfit. As for Indonesia, I don't doubt he went to a mixed religious school. But I do have some scepticism about whether that was the full extent of his education in Indonesia. Lots of Muslim children attend Madrassas outside normal school hours. His father was Muslim. It would be unusual for a Muslim not to arrange for some Islamic education for their child. Maybe it didn't happen in this case, but if it didn't it's an unusual case.

Harry

Peter Hitchens (not always on the button) wrote a great essay on Obama in the Mail on Sunday a couple of weeks ago. He didn't predict Obama would become President but his tone seemed to imply that he thought things would go that way. I agree with him. Obama is a brilliant public speaker and certainly has charisma. However, Hitchens cautioned how quickly any Obama presidency of his would soon sour because once people see through the slick presentation they will abandon him. I am curious as to why Obama won't debate Hillary but perhaps it's because he wants to lessen the chances of leaving any hostages to fortune in the run up to the race proper.

"The great John Bolton"? Yes. The great John Bolton. I love seeing him on Newsnight where blows apart the cant of the presenters and the other soft-head half-wits who come on to talk about terrorism. The last time I saw him on that show Gavin Estler was having a huge pop at him and Bolton finished giving his rejoinder and said "I'd love to hear your alternative", to which Estler said "John Bolton, thank you very much". Surprise, surprise. Bolton just sat there laughing at that.

Do check out John Bolton's book for a detailed account of what goes on in that cesspit of iniquity that is the United Nations 'Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations'.

BJ

"the great John Bolton" ha ha ha!

Hope from experience

If Obama is Bambi, then sit back. Nothing much will happen in the intricate legislative system in the States. If he is not Bambi, then it is time to understand who he represents and how to treat. Someone indicated that Tony Blair was the UK's Bambi. I think our Bambi is still to appear. He or she will probably be younger than Barack Obama, who is 46, may not be as well educated (he is a tenured law lecturer at Chicago), and will appeal to the people who have not benefited from the last 20 years of change in the UK. Possibly from the north-east, or Scotland! I've got it! An Arabic speaking Scotswoman who uses an iphone?

szeni

According to Martin Peretz (who is rooting for Obama), Robert Malley is not and never was Obama's adviser. He was hired by Hillary's husband though to mediate between Israel and Palestinians in 2000

epaminondas

Plus ca change ... Obama will be Jimmy Carter squared, including blaming Americans for the great dispiritment, and turning away in thought which will ensue following the rest of the world's cynical use of his dangerously naive ideas to our detriment.

Can't you just see the meeting Obama has called for with 'middle east leaders' to see why we all just can't get along? I wonder what those corrupt tribal racist leaders might say is the problem ... gee, I wonder...

Lawrence Balan

Very well put!! All these dems seem to forget that some of Obama's formative years have been spent in Jakarta/Indonesia where he was enrolled in a Muslim school of a radical current! Therefore, he's naturally soft on the Muslim radicalism which there’s no doubt in any thinker's mind IT IS A PROBLEM THESE DAYS, and a MAJOR one at that! I do hope that when push comes to shove, reason will prevail over emotion, even if for the fact that the largest voting block is still the baby-boomers who presumably have some brains left – or do they? Many of them had to successfully make it through the ’60-s era after all! Ha, ha…

Lawrence Balan

Hey Nathan, was that an Al-Jazeera team that CNN sent over to the school in question? It's been long since CNN lost real credibility; where did you live? Under a rock?

John

I have rarely laughed as much as I did when I read Field's babbling essay about Diana. At first I was sure it was a wind-up. I still hope it was. It was as absurd as Diana herself, a spoiled, narcissistic shell of nothingness, with no grasp of her own absurdity. But then, when your IQ is lower than room temperature ...

Bruce

Yes the disease is spreading. May I echo commenter 'Morbo' that this week's Australian 'Sorry' campaign, which looked to me like collective insanity, is best understood as a form of Diana-ism.

Mark

So, Punishment of Luxury, you are saying that the things in that particular Wikipedia article about John Bolton are incorrect? hmm, that must be why he was so successful when he was nominated as the UN ambassador....

Mike Homfray

If Obama is going to abandon unthinking, uncritical Zionism, then even more reason to support him.

ian adie

Australia has been submerged in a similar tsunami of blackstrap molasses over the Prime Minister's "apology" to children with aboriginal mothers and non-aboriginal fathers, who were forcibly taken away with the alleged intention of preventing their being rejected by the tribe and killed, or subjected to rape and drunken violence etc. such as continues in some indigenous communities to this day. To make the case that the policy was "racist,nothing was said about the many white children who were similarly "stolen" in those days to be put in homes etc.,and told their parents were dead. The "sorry" symbolism was overdue, but I fear the half-truths, myths and blind emotionalism enshrined will prove to be yet another case of a downward path paved with good intentions.

Richard mawanda

USA ELECTION EXPRESS: OBAMA SALABLE NOT IN US ALONE BUT A GLOBAL BRAND For most of us who have been here in the Clinton days when he made grand historical visits; off course in Uganda we felt his presidential prowess, rubbed shoulders with Hillary not mentioning some of us who managed snaps with their only daughter Chelsea, we can only have something enough to brag about. It was not all bread and butter however as countless armies of city idlers and jobless youth were hurled and really served time at the university of Understanding codenamed UU “Luzira prison”, The Government under the pretext of boosting security ahead of the strongest man on earth’s arrival. The Clinton era was synonymous with scandals but that’s not so big news at least in Africa where concubinism is more of a trait. We still agree to having a soft spot for the Clintons with all the goodwill they ushered in when for the first time the American president in history managed to have spent some time in our villages and seen shaking hands with the remotest of filthy poor citizens donning rags. Clinton managed to visit villages I confess I didn’t know existed in this tiny east African country. Given the relationship one should have thought that we are in for Clinton rather than Obama presidency. The world outside America has much to gain from Obama’s presidency where he is viewed as the person more relating to them than many American presidents. There is also belief that since he studied abroad and his next of kin Kenyans, he can understand easily how to work on world stage as he has more knowledge about the world outside America than the many self proclaimed foreign policy republican Gurus. I have heard McCain bragging about the republican experience in managing a flowery foreign policy a feat distant enough for the democrats to achieve he claims. I believe this hoaxic a foreign policy, sanctioning Chest beating and threatening opponents. Whether relationships have been in Africa or Asia name it, they have been mostly thorny and characterized with biasness propping up dictatorial regimes in Africa in exchange with mineral contracts to American countries. They have gone ahead sometimes with military hardware donations to Governments to suppress opposition and if this has been the Republican dominated foreign policy, its bound to re-open more wounds abroad if they are elected again. Obama has been straight forward in policy at least even if his opponents blow it out of proportion as rhetorical but its better to have hope than wait for wrath of non caring Republican American presidents in the oval office. We need dialogue in the world today than flexing and if situations allow we need to talk straight with our detractors not to go round problems but take them head on.Obama is not only attractive a choice for being Black, learned, humble background but his works with inner city disadvantaged communities appeals to multitudes who can connect what he has managed in a few years to his message of hope which seems more likely to become reality than ever. Washington politicians have always talked about Medicare, foreign policy, subsidies to industry and research spending but do they do it? No after getting the vote they resort to self fulfilling projects, why not mention shoddy contracts awarded to Halliburton, the forceful linking of Al-Qaeda to Iraq and ultimate US deployment against world outcry is the order of the day in Washington. When Obama stands and begs Americans to send someone to change the business in Washington, he is appealing to an already converted crowd. So please let him do it. www.jacofoods.blogspot.com

Yisrael Medad

Actually, I thought the Oslo Peace Process Syndrome was the benchmark standard.