Morning In America

It is a new dawn, is it not? Or at least so said Tony Blair on the 2nd of May 1997 as the sun rose on a Labour party that swept to an historic landslide victory against the Conservatives who had been in office for almost two decades.

During those early months Labour and Blair rode on the crest of a wave of optimism and goodwill from many cheering crowds of Union Jack waving British people. However, this initial euphoria was short-lived and the rest is history.

In ten years Blair presided over two unnecessary and futile wars in the Middle East, escalating (though often ignored) economic problems, the steady decline in our power of self-government and a rapid rise in political correctness among many, many other unpleasant facets stemming from his Labour administration.

And so now to America where Democrat, Barack Obama has convincingly won the US 2008 Presidential Race against John McCain – all to cheering crowds of star-spangled waving US citizens, much glee in the liberal-left media and on the promise of ‘change’, ‘hope’ and ‘optimism’. Does that sound familiar to you?

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The Cult Of Obama

This will be the first and hopefully last time that I have cause to mention the Democrat Presidential candidate, Barack Obama and anything relating to his campaign – lest he actually become US President later this year which I still doubt he will.

His visit to Germany and much lauded speech in Berlin (in which unsurprisingly he said nothing at all) were met with screaming crowds of zealous fans whose presence did little more than confirm his full transition from man to unthinking cult.

In many ways Obama reminds me very much of Tony Blair when he first became Prime Minister, who arrived in Downing Street to crowds of screaming fans waving Union Flags on a manifesto of ‘hope’, ‘change’ and ‘optimism’. What those words actually meant, nobody was really sure – but it wasn’t long before Blair and his Labour mob had set to work destroying what was left of Britain, and for his once fanatical supporters to slowly drift away.

Similarly praise for Obama has been equally misplaced. Thus far he has cruised along on a wave of meaningless rhetoric and lavish praise from (in this country) the BBC and the types who were so fond of Tony Blair’s comparable variety of emptiness and slogans in the 90s. In the Mail on Sunday, Peter Hitchens asks:

When will Mr Obama’s absurd bubble of adulation burst?

Unfortunately, one has to suspect that the artificial bubble that has enveloped Obama will be sustained by blogs and the media, both in this country and in America, until the Presidential election in November. However, we can, I feel, do the United States and British politics a great service by simply ignoring him altogether.

By continually mentioning his name and his exploits we will only perpetuate or indeed enlarge his bubble of adulation. Deprived of the oxygen of hype and publicity, hopefully the Obama cult may die out and people will, like they did with Blair, eventually begin to see that behind the grand words and spirited speeches there is just a man – not a saviour – with nothing to say at all.