"He's Just Like Blair!"

Obama would be ambivalent about “this place“.

On the one hand he’d feel right at home because it employs the social engineering concepts which he holds so dear and which he hopes to implement in the United States. These include a single-payer healthcare program, a “cradle to grave” welfare system and a labor-dominated social infrastructure.

“This place” is, of course, the United Kingdom but these very same programs have resulted in an overwhelming sense of apathy and indifference towards politics among many and an almost pathological reliance on government at the European level as well as via Westminster and locally. Not that such a reliance would worry Obama and his cohorts and, in fact, it could be argued that this is his goal because with reliance comes control and that is the true goal of every Socialist.

So it sounds like an Obama nirvana doesn’t it? But there is another side to this glowing endorsement of his beliefs and policies and it's one that would not please him at all.

Yesterday, I scoured two national newspapers and found not one mention of the Messiah. How can this be in a land that is supposed to hang on his every word? And he doesn’t fare any better in the electronic media either and so, all-in-all, it’s not good news for a political diva.

But, not be to thwarted, I decided to do some digging on my own and began asking questions of the locals about the “Great Leader”. Even before I got here I had started thinking about this issue and I had formulated some ideas of my own which I was determined to validate or dismiss. Because the U.S. media, principally the sycophants of most cable news outlets, had been assuring me of Obama’s popularity in Europe, I came up with these questions.

“Is Obama popular here?”

Depending on the answer, the next one was -------

“And why do you think that is?”

Sometimes I got answers of substance to that question but more often than not I didn’t and in those cases I added some clues.

“Do you think”, I asked, “that it’s because he seems to jet around the world aboard Air Force One making apologetic speeches on behalf of the United States”? “Or is it because”, I added, “that it’s because his policies are so much in line with those implemented in Europe”? “Or is it because he’s not George W. Bush and that’s reason enough for many people?”

One set of responses to these queries surprised me at first until I started to think it through.

"He's just like Blair", I was told.

For some ten years and until fairly recently, Tony Blair was the British Prime Minister. He swept into office in 1997 with promises of good things for just about everybody. The “ancien regime” was dead and gone and a new era of change was dawning. Now, as his successor, Gordon Brown, wallows up to his neck in “the slough of despond” and appears destined for a catastrophic defeat in the next general election, many voters are looking back at Blair as well and are asking some very tough questions. Principal among these is succinct to the point of semi-brutality namely, “Apart from becoming very rich personally, what did he actually do?”

And, it seems there are not many good answers to this very good question.

There is little doubt that Blair was young, charismatic, intelligent, articulate and, Oh by the way, a lawyer. This latter fact alone should tell you something!

Sound like anybody you know?

Less obvious at the time though was his unbridled ambition, a devious nature worthy of Machiavelli, and an inability or an unwillingness to actually do anything. One respondent reminded me of the old joke about the IBM salesman who, on his wedding night, didn’t actually perform but sat on the edge of the bed boasting about how great it was going to be.

Again, does it remind you of anyone you know?

I did get at least one endorsement from a British respondent for Obama but, as the guy is a lawyer, I am tempted to regard this instance as a case of professional solidarity.

Finally, Obama would love this place for another reason as well. It just cost me more than 120 US dollars to fill my rental car with diesel and most of that was tax!!