Reality bites

The next President of the USA - as elected by the media - is now discovering that rhetoric alone is not enough. Obama is being advised to "kill expectation" should he become elected President - which is odd seeing how the only thing Obama has actually made any commitment to is expectation.

All he has done is promise "change we can believe in" - but has singularly failed to actually set down what that change might actually be. It's been a trademark of the reporting of this election that whenever his supporters are asked what Obama might bring to the Presidency they trumpet "change!!!" - but, on the all too rare occasions when they are asked what sort of change the general response is "I dunno - just change, I guess".

Now his advisers are telling him to play that down - in other words, there will be no change other from a white guy to a black guy. And that makes things better how, exactly? The reason they are telling Obama this is that these advisers now realise that winning isn't enough. You see - once you win, you then actually have to deliver and Obama's supporters actually have no idea what that change will be. In truth I suspect that he has no idea either - but it sounded good at the time.

This is something the Tories need to learn. They have been doing the same as Obama - but longer and with typically British reserve, but essentially they are doing the same thing. No actual policy differences between them and Labour but the Tories still offer "change" as the basic reason for asking us to vote for them.

Like Obama, they will discover that once they actually obtain power, the expectation on them will be enormous. Like Obama, they will last one term before reality bites and they are exposed as the shambolic socialists they actually are.