Blairwatch on the endorsement, and on “Obama and how it will affect the EU”, quoting from a speech by David Rennie, The Economist’s Europe correspondent.
However, it’s time for a reality check, “Senator Obama is not Martin Luther King, Obama is not Bobby Kennedy. He is not an idealistic romantic dreamer. Barack Obama is an extremely effective, extremely charismatic machine politician. He came through the Chicago political machine, one of the dirtiest, most corrupt, most nepotistic political machines. He never fell out with the machine, he never challenged the corruption; he does what it takes to get by.”
Since I’ve never believed Obama to be anything but a centrist who possesses almost supernatural political skills, then presumably there will be less to disappoint me. As for being corrupt, there’s nothing to indicate that Obama himself is – because, if for no other reason, the Republicans would have surely found it by now. That he negotiated the brass knuckle world of Chicago politics and remained inspirational is a decided positive.
One key issue with Europe will be the contract for Air Force tankers. Will it go to EADS, an European firm, or back to the U.S? (Boeing’s previous bid ended up with some of their executives going to prison for corruption.)
Rennie wonders what Europe’s world role will be.
A very uncomfortable moment as Europe wants to have a loud voice in the world, to be taken seriously, but cannot decide what it wants to say. How long does Europe have before the new president decides that Europe is not serious? “About twelve months and then we’re going to be back with a president who doesn’t think Europe is serious.”
“On balance, If we’re not going to be as crap as we usually are, then Obama is definitely the president we should elect.”