The new battle in British politics is how to be most like Obama

James Forsyth says that both Brown and Cameron are mesmerised by the new President, who will be the lodestar of political life in this country. The contest to lay claim to his policies and style has begun — the risk being that our leaders are found sorely wanting by comparison

David Cameron and Gordon Brown would not be human if they had not felt a little jealous on Tuesday night. They will never give a speech like Barack Obama or draw a crowd as big as his. To rub salt in the wound, Obama had just achieved — without knowing it — what they have spent their adult lives trying to do: he had reorientated British politics.

Obama is the new lodestar of our politics. He is — at least for now — the arbiter of where the centre is, what is good policy, what’s in and what’s out. After years in which a cheap shot at the American president was the easiest way to get a round of applause on Question Time, effusive praise is now the order of the day. The new President is, after all, box office: newspapers that usually avoid politics clear the front page for him, glossy magazines venerate him as the Celebrity in Chief and books on and by him — unlike their British counterparts — dominate the bestseller tables in bookshops. He has gripped the public’s imagination in a way that no leader has since Blair.

Across the political spectrum — from tax-cutting Tories to those on the left who want to revive Labour through grassroots campaigning — Obama is the vehicle used to advance agendas. He has become the kite-mark of politics.