THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE
‘As I was walking up the stair,
I met a man, who wasn’t there,
He wasn’t there again today………..’
Barak Obama is by far away the most intellectually competent President since FDR, not just erudite but humane and a man with real empathy and compassion. His election inspired people across the world, illuminating the best in America.
Since then however he has felt curiously absent on the international stage, more a mirage than reality, a good idea, hovering in the background, present but not present, as substantial as steam.
Now I may be being unfair, this does feel like a very subjective judgement, moreover I do not have sufficient understanding of domestic American politics and it may well be that he has transformed the political landscape there and it is at home that his overwhelming priorities, as indeed they should, have lain. But the hideous Nixon felt like a presence, Clinton was a presence, the execrable George Bush junior felt like a presence, Obama does not.
As the Middle East explodes and the greatest geopolitical changes occur since the demolition of the Berlin war Obama appears weak and indecisive, the man who isn’t there.
I met a man, who wasn’t there,
He wasn’t there again today………..’
Barak Obama is by far away the most intellectually competent President since FDR, not just erudite but humane and a man with real empathy and compassion. His election inspired people across the world, illuminating the best in America.
Since then however he has felt curiously absent on the international stage, more a mirage than reality, a good idea, hovering in the background, present but not present, as substantial as steam.
Now I may be being unfair, this does feel like a very subjective judgement, moreover I do not have sufficient understanding of domestic American politics and it may well be that he has transformed the political landscape there and it is at home that his overwhelming priorities, as indeed they should, have lain. But the hideous Nixon felt like a presence, Clinton was a presence, the execrable George Bush junior felt like a presence, Obama does not.
As the Middle East explodes and the greatest geopolitical changes occur since the demolition of the Berlin war Obama appears weak and indecisive, the man who isn’t there.
