Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Great expectations

After weeks - no, months of buildup we've finally reached the point when America has its first black president and the media plan to give us wall to wall coverage of the event even if we don't give a monkeys either way.

Obama will take office as, quite possibly, the least examined and most un-criticised incoming president ever - certainly of modern times. The media have made no attempt to find out what he actually stands for, what his plans are, how he intends to go about implementing them or anything else that they should be asking. Instead they've just accepted him and his mantra of "change" unquestioningly and at face value.

Unfortunately for Obama, that is not enough now. He can no longer hide behind ambiguity and disingenuous statements - he has to deliver the detail and the media are going to have to start asking awkward questions even if they don't want to.

The media have pinned great expectations on Obama and now he has to either live up to that or fall flat on his face. There is no in between for Obama - it is all or nothing. For that reason I expect him to be even more "radical" than most were expecting.

For that reason ... I fear for the USA.

4 comments:

TheFatBigot said...

I hope you're wrong, Mr Stan. I hope his inability to say anything of substance in two years of campaigning means he will not have the strength to take a firm position on anything and sustain it.

My fear is that he will be too open to whatever floats the opinion polls' boat.

There is absolutely nothing in what he has said and done so far to suggest he has the qualities to do anything that needs to be done. Just a dusky, American, Princess Di.

Stan said...

I agree with your assessment of Obama as a person, FB - but, unfortunately he is now the President of the USA. A dusky, American Princess Di indeed, but Princess Di was never in power!

You say he will be too open to whatever the opinion polls say - which is true enough - but my biggest worry is that he will be too easily led by his influences. From what I gather there are a lot of people with some heavy investment in Obama and they will want payback. I'm not convinced that their interests coincide with those of the USA.

Anonymous said...

"Obama will take office as, quite possibly, the least examined and most un-criticised incoming president ever - certainly of modern times. "

that statment is complete nonsense - one would expect more intellectual honesty or at least originality from this site. Obama's positions are well articulated and vetted through a long and rigorous campaign and during that campaign he faced a great deal of criticism from his opponent and the conservative press. If you have problems with Obama then don't use a cliched inaccurate statement such as above. How about some substance as to why you "fear" for the US?

And if you think he is nothing more than a "dusky Princess Di that perhaps that is because you have destroyed your own educational institutions some much that you dont understand that in the US graduates of Columbia and Harvard Law actually have to be intelligent and master some subject matter. Having lived in the UK for several years now I am astonished at what a miserable embittered race so many Brits are - constantly wishing ill to others and evoking utter nonsense to support your sour opinions. The US will be fine - and my my wont you all hate that.

Stan said...

You're wrong, anon - there has been little real examination of Obama either before or after his election. Oh, there has been plenty of rhetoric but no substance. I've spoken to a number of Obama supporters over the last few months and asked them the same question - what is he going to do - and all they can tell me is "change". Change what? Change how? Change when? He's had months to come up with an economic policy - we're still none the wiser.

I don't wish ill on others either, but I'm not stupid enough to think that just endlessly repeating "hope" and "change" will make a differenc, and old enough to know that fancy rhetoric is not going to do it either. Substance is what counts and Obama has shown precious little of that. If you've lived in the UK for several years you will know that we had a similar experience with a chap called Blair - another "superb" orator with a gift for rhetoric who turned out to be a vacuous, value free, idea deficient, self promoting and easily manipulated shell. Ten years of his leadership left Britain on the brink of ruination and I DO NOT want to see that happen to the USA. So stop swooning over Obama and start asking him some tough questions or in 8 years time you'll be wondering how you ever let your country of birth, the greatest nation on the planet decline so rapidly.