Richard Littlejohn

Obama vs the lightweights

This President should be beatable. But the real Republican contender won’t get in the ring for another five years

This President should be beatable. But the real Republican contender won’t get in the ring for another five years

Florida

By rights, Barack Obama should be on the ropes. After what he himself described as a ‘shellacking’ in the midterm elections, he was given a mandatory count and still managed to stay on his feet. That ‘hopey-changey thing’ hasn’t worked out as advertised. America’s debt mountain is of Himalayan proportions. Last weekend, Washington was on the brink of a government shutdown as Obama’s government and Congress traded punches over budget cuts. Half the country hates Obama’s nationalised healthcare plan with a medieval vengeance.

It gets worse. His promise to shut Club Gitmo has been shelved indefinitely.

His plans to try 9/11 mastermind Sheikh Khaled Mohammed as a common criminal in New York had to be abandoned. His mission to reach out to the Islamic world has belly-flopped. The Middle East is in turmoil, the Muslim Brotherhood on the march in Egypt, Iran is still on course to go nuclear and the President was seen to dither hopelessly over Libya. At times the coolest man on the planet has looked laid back to the point of comatose. His own cheerleaders are disappointed and muted.

So you might expect the Republicans to be itching to field a candidate against him for next year’s presidential election. Instead, Obama has just announced his candidacy for 2012 and is in the process of raising an astonishing $1 billion for his re-election campaign. In a country where money doesn’t so much talk as shout at the top of its voice, he looks almost certain to beat any Republican who dares to get in the ring with him. And there is a distinct, near-farcical lack of any credible contender willing to have a go.

Sarah Palin probably won’t run, but she remains a role model for women called Peggy Sue who waddle round Wal-Mart in their curlers.

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