Barack Obama should call in the exorcists
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall of the White House as Barack Obama arrived with a smile and a repossession order on Monday. While George showed the President-Elect round the Oval Office ("See if you can find the WMD; I'll give you a clue - they're in the corner"), Laura took Michelle on a tour of the bedrooms (that was always Bill Clinton's favourite) before showing off her impressive collection of Islamic artefacts. Children were banned, in case Jenna and Barbara Bush took the Obama daughters off to find the drinks cabinet. We don't know whether the Obamas were introduced to any of the Bush family pets, Barney, Miss Beazley or Tony Blair. Or indeed Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. Their malign spirits must haunt every corridor. If I were the Obamas, I'd have the place exorcised. It always astounds me how fast the media move. I received an e-mail circular barely four hours after the result was announced, which began: "Now that the dust has settled after Barack Obama's historic and momentous victory…" Interesting too, how Obama's inspirational "Yes We Can" has shifted to the less catchy "Well, we'll try, but you know these problems are really big and we might not be able to solve them all at once, or at all". The lowering of expectations reminds me of an inspired stand-up routine - I think by Bill Hicks - where an idealistic incoming President, full of radical new ideas, is ushered into the White House by the men in suits, sat down and shown footage of the Kennedy assassination, only taken from an angle he'd never seen it before. When the lights go back on, the new man is greeted by a room full of knowing glances. That usually does the trick. They're never quite as radical after that. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/11/12/do1203.xml
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall of the White House as Barack Obama arrived with a smile and a repossession order on Monday. While George showed the President-Elect round the Oval Office ("See if you can find the WMD; I'll give you a clue - they're in the corner"), Laura took Michelle on a tour of the bedrooms (that was always Bill Clinton's favourite) before showing off her impressive collection of Islamic artefacts. Children were banned, in case Jenna and Barbara Bush took the Obama daughters off to find the drinks cabinet. We don't know whether the Obamas were introduced to any of the Bush family pets, Barney, Miss Beazley or Tony Blair. Or indeed Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. Their malign spirits must haunt every corridor. If I were the Obamas, I'd have the place exorcised. It always astounds me how fast the media move. I received an e-mail circular barely four hours after the result was announced, which began: "Now that the dust has settled after Barack Obama's historic and momentous victory…" Interesting too, how Obama's inspirational "Yes We Can" has shifted to the less catchy "Well, we'll try, but you know these problems are really big and we might not be able to solve them all at once, or at all". The lowering of expectations reminds me of an inspired stand-up routine - I think by Bill Hicks - where an idealistic incoming President, full of radical new ideas, is ushered into the White House by the men in suits, sat down and shown footage of the Kennedy assassination, only taken from an angle he'd never seen it before. When the lights go back on, the new man is greeted by a room full of knowing glances. That usually does the trick. They're never quite as radical after that. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/11/12/do1203.xml