Obama - Does he put our Politicians to shame?

[Chrisoldinho]

Taking out the Politics of Politics for a second.

What a breath of fresh air it is to have someone like O'bama as President. Watching the inauguration of TV yesterday made our Politics look dull, and our Politicians dull.

This guy is in a different league.

Sorry for the poor explaination of what I mean but it's one of those things that's hard to put into context. I just felt a real sense of Justice and Optimism and that someone who was clearly a class act had got the job. Watching his biography on BBC1 gave me a real sense he was someone who was in touch with the people unlike our pen pushing back scratching politicians who quite often make me want to commit suicide everytime they speak they are that
D U L L (ok a bit of an exaduration there!).

Did anyone else get that vibe and do we need someone like O'bama to get us exited and motivated about the future?

[eric pisch]

he is a well polished package

one thing people need to remember thou he is reading all these speeches he makes, he has a lead writer whose becoming pretty famous in the states now and he has 12 assistant writers with him and they are all moving to the whitehouse.

[Wild Weasel]

It like Tony Blair in 1997. It won't last.

[eric pisch]

Originally Posted by Wild Weasel

It like Tony Blair in 1997. It won't last.

i thought tony was a slimey weasel second hand car dealer from day one

I like obama, i personally dont think that the system in place will let him change much

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by Chrisoldinho

do we need someone like O'bama to get us exited and motivated about the future?

We had someone like Obama in Tony Blair as much the same things were being said when he became President Prime Minister yet when the honeymoon was over it turned out that he was all style and very little substance

[johntheexpat]

Originally Posted by Ian J

....it turned out that he was all style and very little substance

Isn't that the definition of a modern politician? Isn't that why the world is where it is today? All western politicians are just self serving puff and bluster, with no back-bone, and not a lot else either.

[krish]

I know he has speechwriters, but I've heard in several news reports that Obama himself authored his inaugural address .... if there's any confirmation that it wasn't him please could someone post it

EDIT ... it does appear it was written by his chief speechwriter, 27 year old Jon Favreau
- Barack Obama's inauguration speech ... crafted by 27-year-old in Starbucks | World news | The Guardian

Jon Favreau (speechwriter) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Favreau was the primary writer of Obama's Inauguration address. The Guardian describes the process as follows: "The inaugural speech has shuttled between them [Obama and Favreau] four or five times, following an initial hour-long meeting in which the president-elect spoke about his vision for the address, and Favreau took notes on his computer. Favreau then went away and spent weeks on research. His team interviewed historians and speech writers, studied periods of crisis, and listened to past inaugural orations. When ready, he took up residence in a Starbucks in Washington and wrote the first draft."

[clockworks]

The difference is, the Americans elect their President, we don't (directly) elect our Prime Minister.

Presidential candidates have to appeal directly to the people. The process is complicated, but ultimately the people decide. This encourages the selection of charismatic or powerful candidates.

We vote for a party, the party members decides who is going to lead them and the country. This encourages compromise leaders, the ones least likely to offend the most party members.

[Setenza]

I'd happily welcome, an ugly, hunchback, evil smelling, lisping, lardass, with no personality, if they could undertake the duties of their office in a professional, honest and relevant fashion for the countries best interests.

We get the above without the skills and integrity 9from either party before this descends into the usual left/right squabble).

XoD.

[eric pisch]

Originally Posted by krish

I know he has speechwriters, but I've heard in several news reports that Obama himself authored his inaugural address .... if there's any confirmation that it wasn't him please could someone post it

they where talking about this guy on LBC last night, cant remember his name, commenting on his skill, and they said that he wrote the inaugural speech

that's it Favreau, they reckon hes pretty much responsible for obama being president, he kept a cool and unbaised approach even when Hillary was going for the jugular.

and again it would have been easy to write a promise all flag waving celebratory speech yesterday, but he kept it emotive but realistic imo

[krish]

Originally Posted by eric pisch

they where talking about this guy on LBC last night, cant remember his name, commenting on his skill, and they said that he wrote the inaugural speech

Yep ... edited my earlier post, as just found the info

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by clockworks

The difference is, the Americans elect their President, we don't (directly) elect our Prime Minister.

Presidential candidates have to appeal directly to the people. The process is complicated, but ultimately the people decide. This encourages the selection of charismatic or powerful candidates.

Although you included the word "directly" in brackets we do effectively elect the Prime Minister as many people vote for the person that they want to lead the country rather than their own Member of Parliament.

It now seems an eternity ago but people voted for Thatcher as Prime Minister and not for their local MP and that is why there have been so many changes of party leader in recent years on both sides as the politicians realised that the present leader was unelectable

[whatsupdoc]

I think the only thing Obama has going for him is that he is not Bush.

[Suave]

Hi,

Unless we have a Written Constitution that politicians cannot by design interfere with or abuse, we will never be true democracy. Ironically, it is the one thing our politicians who harp on about democracy will never grant the British people. Ask yourself why and you will find the answer why we will never have transparent or a truly honest, answerable political system.

Suave!

[clockworks]

Surely most people vote for the party, not the leader or the local MP?

The leader might swing the votes of the undecided, but it seems that it's normally a case of voting to keep a party OUT of power in this country.

Maggie got in because people were fed up with Labour. Blair got in because people were fed up with the Tories. I seriously doubt that anyone voted Tory the first time around because Maggie was the leader.
Having Blair as the leader probably gave Labour a bigger majority in '97, but they would've won whoever was leading them.

I feel that British politics would be a lot more interesting if we had a leadership election midway through a parliamentary term. Imagine a labour government with Boris or Portillo at the helm, or a Tory government with Benn or Livingstone in charge.