Pat Dollard | Young Americans

The presidential candidate’s European tour stopped in in Downing Street yesterday and left our man feeling a little underwhelmed

Times Online

July 27, 2008

IN the heat of the summer morning, a throng waited. The prophet of hope was on his way and the believers were eager for his blessing.

Hope, dreams, freedom, a world made new. Those are Barack Obama’s watchwords, and yesterday in Downing Street all manner of camera teams, scribblers, acolytes and stargazers had assembled for an audience with His Expectancy.

For Obama the road had been long, not just from his father’s goat herd roots in Kenya to US presidential candidate but these last few days via Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany and France.

In Berlin he had roused 200,000 to cheers at the Tier-garten. “This is our moment to give our children back their future,” he declaimed. “This is the moment to stand as one” - and was in Paris before anyone in the delirious crowd could work out what he meant.

Yesterday, London wanted some of the rock star magic. At the gates of Downing Street workmen with pneumatic drills were hammering the road. Gordon Brown digging in? Surely not: he needs any dreams, any hope Obama can spare.

Just before 9am the drilling stopped and hush descended. Men in shades appeared, with earpieces and wired necks and “secret service” written across their foreheads. A Mercedes-Benz people carrier with blacked-out windows swept in. The president was here.

Whoa! Hold up there. President? This man is merely a candidate. But he so looks the part, it’s easy to forget the small matter of the election in November.

For a candidate carrying a mountain of expectations, Obama is an unassuming figure. He lopes. He takes his time. He’s so calm he belies the buzz. He has that Blairite thing: the poise, the cadences, the core of self-confidence that quietly says I am the chosen one. But only, of course, if you, the people, wish it so.

The two chosen ones had met over breakfast at Obama’s hotel, where they discussed the Middle East - Blair is now an international envoy to the region - and climate change for an hour.

Protocol in such affairs is all. Brown came second but he was granted two hours in the senator’s precious schedule.

Upstairs in the Downing Street flat Obama met the prime minister’s wife, Sarah, and their two young sons, John and Fraser. They were bearing gifts for Obama of two books about Winston Churchill by the historian Martin Gilbert and silver picture frames for his daughters.

A moment of embarrassment ensued: an aide had left Obama’s gifts for Brown aboard the senator’s plane. No matter. Their exchange of views flowed freely enough as they talked widely about Iraq, the Middle East (again), world trade and personal debt.

Outside, television crews jostled for position to film Obama’s reemergence. “I haven’t seen anything like this since the 1997 election,” said one veteran. “It’s mental.”

There was a hint of Diana-mania, a touch of Obama Mia!, as the senator finally sauntered loose-limbed into the London sunshine. If he seemed too easy-going, too laid-back to command a superpower, he straight away dispelled the thought. “Now we’re going to impose some discipline on this mob,” he joked. Reporters lobbed a few grenades. He fumbled none.

Afghanistan: “I’m already committed to an increase in American troops . . . it’s going to be necessary for us to complete the job.” The special relationship: “I think there is a deep and abiding affection for the British people in America.” His treatment by the media: “There have been months when I’m a genius and months when I’m an idiot if you read the newspapers. It seems [to me] I’m pretty much the same guy during this process.”

Then the schedule and the bodyguards closed in and off he shot a few hundred yards down the road to the Palace of Westminster, where David Cameron, the Tory leader, was determined to have his share.

The two met outside in New Palace Yard. The senator placed a hand on Cameron’s shoulder, and Cameron gestured up at Big Ben, an image of old and new, power and changing times that probably had Brown gnashing teeth and biting nails all at once.

Cameron rammed home the point that he’s the same sort of new kid on the block by giving Obama a selection of CDs by the Smiths, Radiohead and Gorillaz.

For more than an hour Obama talked with Cameron, overrunning his allotted time as they discussed world affairs, the Middle East (again) and balancing politics with family life. Tory insiders later claimed that the senator had said to Cameron: “I want to congratulate you on all you’ve achieved.”

Onlookers chanted: “Oba-ma! Oba-ma! Oba-ma!” But in truth, the prophet underwhelmed. As he implied, he is neither genius nor idiot, just an everyday global saviour. Obama’s brother in China, page 27

Overheard: what Barack said to David

As Barack Obama met David Cameron yesterday they chatted, apparently unaware that a microphone from ABC News was nearby. It gave a fascinating insight into how politicians really see the pressures on them.

Cameron:“You should be on the beach. You need a break. Well, you need to be able to keep your head together.”
Obama:“You’ve got to refresh yourself.”
Cameron:“Do you have a break at all?”
Obama:“I have not. I am going to take a week in August. But I agree with you that somebody, somebody who had worked in the White House who - not Clinton himself, but somebody who had been close to the process - said that, should we be successful, that actually the most important thing you need to do is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you’re doing is thinking. And the biggest mistake that a lot of these folks make is just feeling as if you have to be . . .”
Cameron:“These guys just chalk your diary up.”
Obama:“Right. In 15-minute increments . . .”
Cameron:“We call it the dentist’s waiting room. You have to scrap that because you’ve got to have time.”
Obama:“And, well, and you start making mistakes, or you lose the big picture. Or you lose a sense of, I think you lose a feel . . .” Cameron:“Your feeling. And that is exactly what politics is all about. The judgment you bring to make decisions.”
Obama:“That’s exactly right. And the truth is that we’ve got a bunch of smart people, I think, who know 10 times more than we do about the specifics of the topics.
“And so if what you’re trying to do is micromanage and solve everything then you end up being a dilettante but you have to have enough knowledge to make good judgments about the choices that are presented to you.”