In Germany Barack Obama spoke to 100,000 people. In Paris he did a high profile news conference with President Sarkozy. In London he will be pictured shaking hands with Gordon Brown by the Downing Street press conference at breakfast time tomorrow.
Doesn't that just illustrate what is wrong with the Prime Minister's machine? Apparently, because he didn't do a joint press conference with John McCain on a recent visit, he can't be seen to be showing preference to Obama. If I were him I would tell his protocol people to get stuffed and milk it for all it's worth. What's he got to lose?
Never mind, I am sure Tony Blair and David Cameron will oblige, and thereby steal any positive headlines there are to be had.
It never rains on Gordon eh?
30 comments:
I am surprised Obama would be seen dead with him, and hopefully he will be.
Really Iain, this post is a disgrace. I hope he doesn't give the Obama fool the time of day. Surrendering in Iraq is hardly in the UK national interest, and Obama is not welcome here.
The British Government should do as much as possible to help and promote McCain. Sarkozy and Merkel are promoting their candidate, we should promote our's. If in doubt, always do the opposite of France.
Surprising, really, 'cos up to now his PR team's been right on the money...
Lot's of news channels are suggesting 200,000 people. What they aren't telling anyone is that some popular German bands were giving a free gig that attracted 200,000 people.
Shockingly biased display by the MSM!
Oh God, not you too.
Obama has loser written all over him and both Dave and Gordon would do well to steer clear.
He might be running round the world pretending he is an Internationa Stateman but:
He's not the President.
He's not the official Democrat Candidate yet.
AND
He's not The Messiah, he's a very presumptuous boy. I keep telling my American friends (all Derms) to lobby their superdelegates to dump this gobshite. They can still go into the election with a candidate who has better than a snowflake in hell's chance of winning.
German police said 200,000
Obama will be a welcome breath of fresh air to international affairs and diplomacy.
Anyone who calls Obama an empty shirt simply hasn't done their research and it is the height of hypocrisy when many of us are trying to get Cameron elected as PM.
Of course Obama is the Democratic nominee - to say otherwise is as stupid as suggesting Romney will depose McCain at the Republican convention.
I don't see why Brown, or any leader, should pay any attention to him at all. I dislike the idea of the Presidential candidates using other countries as campaign stops. I'm particularly against Obama's plan to make speeches in front of historial or political landmarks. He's trying to invoke the memories without either the content or relevance.
The Pentagon, no doubt at the behest of the GOP, banned Obama visiting troops in Germany. How low can this partisan shit get? The GOP playing cheap politics with the armed services.
The real problem for Obama is that Gordon is a Jonah, stay too close and McCain will win.
See how nice the weather was today, the only storm clouds were sitting above Gordon's head!
What on earth could Obama learn from Gordon?
How to win an election?
i think people on here seriously underestimate just how many people like obama.
remember both parties in america are right of center to some degree or other.
here i am solid conservative. if i lived in america, i'd be a floating voter, altho i'll admit a lot of that is due to the religious right that runs through the GOP like a virus...
Let's wait and see shall we Iain? Wait and see. Labour does need an AC character right now. But let's see what happens tomorrow shall we?
Actually, and I'm going to regret saying this two minutes after posting the comment. This is to Brown's credit.
Right now I need a stiff drink.
I see the GOP talking points 7:33. Patrice and Reamonn performed before Obama. Those 200,000 were free to go before he spoke. If in fact they weren't drawn principally by Obama they certainly had the time and inclination to listen to the man. Not to mention the electric reaction toward him. The real issue is that when you attract crowds as big as Obama you need something else for crowd control. It's standard practise. And Patrice and Reamonn are clearly very happy to be associated with Obama. The problem for McCain is that no one turns up to his events - cancelled one in Ohio the other day when 700 people turned up leaving over half of the seats in the venue empty whereas at the same venue a few months ago Obama packed the place with over 2000 not including the queues outside that stretched for several blocks.
anonymous
Stop showing your ignorance
Of course Obama is the Democratic nominee ..
NO..he.. is .. not.
He has to be nominated and "crowned" at the Democrat convenntion in Denver in late August, then he'll be their nominee. You could be excused for your error as he's already acting like he was president, perish the thought.
Brown's various performances today, post-Glasgow meltdown, have been simply grotesque. The man is clearly unbalanced and simply repeating comfort mantras such as his own personal conviction that he is right for the job of PM, a delusion shared with no-one else (except maybe Sarah?). He's lost touch with reality.
Whereas, like it or not, the momentum and the spirit of the times are with Obama, who will assuredly be the next President. He'd be mad to associate himself in any way with Brown. The Jonah effect would be the least of his subsequent problems.
200,000 Berliners understood English (or American)?
Very cosmopolitan
as someone who has just moved to the US from UK I can assure all those naysayers above that not only is Barack Obama the nominated Democrat candidate but he is in fact also the President of the USA. Obama moves in his own seperate spae and time (the Obamaverse - its like the multiverse but with better soundbites) in which he is all things to all people. Like God but more popular. Why only this week I saw him giving a sermon on a mountain in the middle east while similtaneously holding a mass rally near Nuremberg. Not to mention his much overlooked role in defeating the Daleks in the finale of Dr Who last month.
Polly Toynbee's article in the Guardian today is the first one I have ever agreed with.
Read her description of Brown doing his imitation of Cameron yesterday! quite devastating.
She even gives the scenario of his going!
She obviously believes that the labour party are now unelectable.
Anonymous said...
"Not to mention the electric reaction toward him."
Yeah? How come the commie Al-beeb said sections of the crowd were disappointed with his speech? Seems some of them were adults who noticed that he didn't have much to say. And Al-beeb said that at least half of them were not Germans.
I think Gordon was right. Obama's Berlin Speech revealed him to be rather lightweight, his Presidency is not in the bag yet.
They did a good photo shoot on the rear terrace, looking rather relaxed on a warm summer's morning. Which is probably a lot better than Gordon looking awkward on his front doorstep as he usually does.
Take a look at the front page of CNN now. It has a picture of Obama with Britain's leader - Tony Blair! I just love how Riddell at the Times keeps saying stuff about how respected Gordon is internationally. So respected, that CNN prefers a pic of our discredited former leader with the "leader" (in waiting) of the free world.
The BBC were at it this morning. On the 5 live breakfast show it was "of course some Americans will never vote for a black man"
Forgetting of course that most blacks in America are voting for..... Obama.
Of course in the BBC world, only whites are racist, especially red neck American ones.
The BBC ignores some FACTS about Obama
1. He never voted against the war in Iraq. He wasn't a Senator at the time the vote was taken to go to war.
2. He's not been around long enough for many Americans to make their mind up about him.
3. He has no qualifications to be commander in chief. A role most Americans take very seriously.
4. He's never had a job of any note (either in the military, as a state Governor or in business)
5. He's very liberal, more so than Hillary.
6. He flip flops on everything
None of those have anything to do with his skin colour. Not that the BBC and other liberal broadcasters would tell you that.
There's more to being a President than being able to read well from an auto cue.
After all we had that idiot Blair. Although having said that, he's a million times better than the idiot running the Country right now.
Are 'mr richard nixon' and Ian Thorpe for real? Especially Thorpe's 'boy' remark. Disgusting. I believe the deep south vanished circa 1968.
Is African Mum for real, and thus stupid? I think so.
Nothing I, or Thorpe said reflect anything negative about Obama except his policy and his character. Typically lefty reaction to any comment against the ludicrous Obama. "Oh yes he won't win because of racism". When I counter this point to any Obama supporting US colleagues by pointing out that 92% of so-called African Americans intend to vote for Osama, they just bristle with liberal indignation.
I suspect it is this kind of hypocrisy that will lead decent American to vote for a real American hero like John McCain rather than a fraud like this.
To 'mr richard nixon' - You don't call a 46 yr old man 'boy'. That's what Thorpe said that was objectionable. And your assertion that Brits should support a warmonger, when quite clearly most of this country was anti Iraq invasion is simply not believable. No one thinks anyone who votes against Obama is racist. But the fact that you don't condemn his policies but lapse into linking his name with that of a terrorist says it all. Not all Africans are lefties, least of all me. You don't have to be leftie to object to infantile racism. You just called the Dem candidate Osama. But for any of us with a conservative disposition, it's shameful that all kinds of fascists like to taint conservative argument with their racism. Surely you can read, and you don't think the Democratic candidate is called Osama do you?
Thanks to the likes of 'mr richard nixon' and the sorts who 'confuse' Obama's last name, the Republicans are facing wipeout in Nov. The great amount of dollars raised by the Dems compared with the paltry sum raised by the Republicans tells the whole story. Americans are fed up with the ball and chains that hold them back. Fact: if Lincoln were alive today most people who now vote Republican would denounce him as a liberal. He'd most likely not be in such a party anyway. Hopefully after the Republicans are electorally decimated a decent right wing party would emerge - something that represents responsible conservatism and personal responsibility, not some red neck shower that it is at present.
A single term senator who has the temerity to run for US President can expect to be called worse than "boy". I don't really care what Brits think. I merely demand that my Government acts in the interests of my people. By supporting the liberation of Iraq, they have done and I commend them for it. Supporting Barak Hussein Obama(I will use his full name to avoid confusion with the similarly named Islamic terrorist, and hope that readers will not confuse the boy with the similarly named former dictator of Iraq) and his policy of capitulation in the face of terror would seem to contradict our policy in the region.
As for your assertion that "the British people opposed the war". No they didn't. Please don't base what little knowledge you have on Channel 4, the Grundian and el-Beeb. The British people voted in 2005 and endorsed the PM who took them into war. The US people did the same with their President in 2004. This is the only real indication of their feelings, and it shows them to be pro-war.
Bush is a two-term President of the US. Your feelings are clearly not shared by the US and British people, although they are shared by such governments as Iran, Syria and the Government of Germany(since voted out of office).
I didn't suggest that all Africans are lefties. Just you. I suspect most African leaders are too busy using humanitarian aid to fund their Civil Wars to concern themselves with ideology. You squeal about "racism", but don't coherently highlight any serious thing either of us have said. I would do the same if I had such feeble arguments.
Back in the real world, McCain is doing very well. I suspect he will win, particularly when the US people are exposed to the boy's vacuous rhetoric and outright anti-Americanism. You have a very shallow knowledge if you think Primary excitement and fundraising have anything to do with the end result(read Michael Dukakis). You really should be asking yourself, if the war is so unpopular and the economy is in meltdown, why is a Republican running close in the polls, inspite of the media giving the boy Goebbels-esque coverage?
Don't be too disappointed in November. Just blame it on racism.
Yuk. The comments on this post are so vile and so out of touch.
I hope Iain Dale will broaden his horizons and try to appeal to a more open minded audience. These people posting are backwards.
Mr Richard Nixon
Well said. Quite right. And I'm getting very bored of that African girl coming here telling everyone what she has decided they are allowed to say.
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