Who'd want the job? Obama still does
President Barack Obama comes to town tomorrow for his UK state visit (he’s in Ireland today). Boris Johnson, Mayor for London, wants him to settle his embassy’s multimillion pound unpaid congestion charge fines.
Protesters will be out too, outside Buckingham Palace where he is staying as a guest of the Queen. The focus of the noise will be the very blind eye that the UK and the US are together turning on the atrocities being perpetrated in Bahrain. Armed with US supplied weaponry, Saudi forces continue to assist local Bahraini troops and thugs in the oppression and suppression of the majority Shia population.
Despite these micro and macro problems Obama may be forgiven for sparing a thought for how much longer he’s likely to be in what once was regarded as the”‘most powerful job in the world”. If the reign of the lone superpower had peaked under George Bush, it has continued its slide under Obama. And it is economic power rather, more than diplomatic and military muscle, that is orchestrating the new world order.
And yet, listening to Obama’s assured performance with a forgivably star-struck Andrew Marr yesterday, the President presented an extraordinarily spontaneous breadth of knowledge, and certainty in the rightness of American power. It was even a refreshing contrast from Bush who frequently seemed to act as if he wasn’t entirely sure how he’d ever landed up with the job.
Today yet another Republican challenger for next year’s White House race has refused to run – the uncharismatic but fancied Governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels. At the same time, the godfather of Godfather Pizzas, the all but unknown Herman Cain, has declared he IS running. Looks like the competent Mitt Romney will end up being the most credible Republican trying to unseat Obama. Last time many mused upon whether America was ready to elect an African American. This time at least as many may well query whether America is ready for a Mormon.
Still, however economically challenged, however poor the field, Obama still intends to raise and waste a whole one billion dollars to enable him to enjoy another four years of Boris Johnson’s congestion charge demands, the noisy voices of disappointed Bahrainis and the rest.