THIRD EVENING UPDATE:  JULY 27,  2008

Posted at 11:41 p.m. ET

A RELATIONSHIP THREATENED

Now, since it's the age of Obama, let me explain that the word "relationship" isn't the sixties kind, where Jason and Melissa meet and have a "relationship" that lasts 12 days and leads to six years of psychiatry.  I'm writing about the special relationship between the United States and the UK. 

Nile Gardiner is director of the Margaret Thatch er Centrex for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC.  He worries about that special relationship if Barack Obama comes to office.  It's something to worry about:

Barack Obama's brief visit to London coincided with the opening of the new Batman film in British cinemas. How fitting.

On his journey through Europe last week the US presidential contender garnered adulation fit for a superhero. As a series of polls has shown, if the British public could vote on the American race, Obama would crush his rival John McCain by a margin of four or five to one.

Even 28 Tory MP's are backing him amidst an outbreak of Westminster Obama mania, despite his left-wing voting record, which made him the most liberal senator of 2007.

Sir Winston must be spinning in his grave, and accelerating.

When you push the spin and hype aside, there is scant evidence to suggest that an Obama presidency would actually strengthen the Anglo-American alliance, which has long been the engine of the free world. In fact, there is a risk it would be significantly weakened...

...The alliance reached its zenith in the 1980s with the leadership of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, a powerful partnership that successfully faced down the Soviet empire. After a period of decline it was successfully revived by George W Bush and Tony Blair in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

And Obama?

After meeting with Gordon Brown yesterday, Senator Obama briefly acknowledged the special relationship, but only after prompting by journalists. He has yet to show much affinity with Britain; we should be wary of taking yesterday's remarks at face value. In fact, his key foreign policy speeches have not mentioned Britain at all.

An Obama presidency could well usher in a seismic shift in the transatlantic alliance, with the centre of gravity of US policy in Europe moving away from London towards Berlin and Paris. His controversial decision to make Germany and France the centrepiece of his European tour, with Britain tacked on almost as an afterthought, is a clear sign of the importance placed by the Obama camp on enhanced relations with the continent.

It gets worse:

The Democrats are traditionally strong supporters of a united, federal Europe, and have little sympathy for British objections to the further centralisation of political, military and economic power in Brussels. If David Cameron becomes prime minister at the head of a Eurosceptic administration, Downing Street and an Obama White House would be worlds apart.

You mean America could be to the left of Britain?  Oh, they're happy at The New York Times tonight.

Britain's chattering classes should be careful what they wish for. Senator Obama promises change and a bold new course for the United States. The end result may be an America that looks away from Britain and erects higher barriers to trade and investment.

The special relationship has lasted over 60 years as the most powerful and successful partnership of modern times. Unfortunately it might not survive the next presidential election.

Sad, but how many Americans will consider that?  Asked another way, how many American teenagers can find England on a map? 

In my travels of the last few days I met a man who'd fought with the 101st Airborne Division in World War II.  He wore the "screaming eagles" insignia in his lapel.  I told him it was an honor to meet him.  He replied that there were very few of his unit left.  It gets you thinking about what's passing from the scene, and what may be coming.

July 27, 2008.       Permalink          

SECOND EVENING UPDATE:  JULY 27,  2008

Posted at 8:34 p.m. ET

DOUBTING OBAMA

We've reported that amidst all the worshipful comments about Obama's magical mystery tour, there have been some expressions of substantial doubt.  Among the best is this, as reported by Germany's Spiegel.  Reader Joseph J. Gallick alerted us to the story:

Klaus Bölling, a former government spokesman under ex-Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, told SPIEGEL ONLINE:

"It was a sermon and an unsuccessful one at that. The intellectual gulf between him and John F. Kennedy could not be overlooked. Apart from the niceties and talk about Berliners' love of freedom, there wasn't a single original thought. Instead, there was just a feeling of 'All people should become brothers.' A world without nuclear weapons? Nice idea, but if Obama gets elected that becomes nothing more than rhetoric."

"In America the demystification process of the candidate has already begun and continues. Our politicians -- especially our chancellor -- will have noticed that Obama can't convincingly pull off trying to look like a fount of new ideas for the Western world. But, in this country, it's not a very popular thing to say out loud."

Ah, the key point - not a popular thing to say out loud.  We all remember the fairy tale, "The Emperor's New Clothes."  This seems to be the Hollywood sequel - "Obama's New Suits."  Many are simply reluctant to say what this German gentleman says, that there's not much there besides the show. 

I dread to think of Obama in a crisis.

July 27, 2008.      Permalink          

EARLY EVENING UPDATE:  JULY 27,  2008

Posted at 8:02 p.m. ET

TRACKERS

Obama gallops in Gallup.  Gallup has him up nine over McCain, a clear bounce from his trip.  Rasmussen has him up a more restrained five, one point lower than yesterday.  The key question:  Will the bounce last?  If it lasts through the Democratic convention late next month, Obama will be in great shape because he may get a good bounce from that unreality show as well.  But these things usually settle back.  Usually.  Let's see if the press will give McCain anything close to a fair shake.

Obama is at 49 percent in both polls.  He has yet to crack the 50-percent mark, but unfortunately he's getting there.

It's amazing that voters can be influenced by a foreign trip in which the candidate said nothing, did nothing, and looked as if he had a really good dry cleaner.  But that's democracy in action, and it's better than the alternatives.

July 27, 2008.      Permalink          

SUNDAY:  JULY 27,  2008

Posted at 8:27 a.m. ET

OBAMA-SKEPTIC

I have not been familiar with Sarah Oliver of London's Daily Mail, but I intend to follow her work, if her latest gem is any example.  She has a certain skepticism about our newfound saint, Barack Obama. This is the quote of the week, in my view:

In Berlin, Obama couldn’t wait to tell the 200,000 crowd that his father had been a goatherd in Kenya and his grandfather a cook for the British during colonial rule. A cook? I wonder if he passed on his recipe for soufflés, those tricky dishes that look fantastic in the rarefied atmosphere of the oven but collapse with a phhht of hot air when they come into contact with the real world.

I suppose we’ll find out after America’s elections in November.

That is my fear.  And I also fear that Americans, directed by a compliant press determined to return to the sixties, will do what they're told to do, and elect an amateur to the White House.

More from Sarah Oliver:

What an almighty fuss, if you’ll forgive the pun, about a junior Senator who’s still only a contender for the White House. You’d think he had already got his bottom on the President’s seat in the Oval Office.

After the Obamania that has spread with the speed of a biblical plague across America and much of mainland Europe, it was finally Britain’s turn. But following eight countries in seven days and a carbon footprint of 10,000 air miles, Barack Obama had to persuade us he was here to do more than just change planes on the way home.

Not exactly a valentine.

Then there was a press conference on the steps of No 10. But where was Obama’s soaring rhetoric, the compelling, charismatic oratory that has come to define his presidential campaign? Perhaps it was still going around a luggage carousel at Heathrow, because he’d certainly left it somewhere.

His preamble was a bit moth-eaten, although that is unsurprising since it had been well used at other points on the world stage in previous days. He’d had a wonderful visit and had talked to Gordon Brown about the transatlantic alliance, climate change, international terrorism and the world’s wobbly finances.

Well, whoopdy-doo. That’s what most of us are discussing, too, but we’re not running for president.

Look, Sarah, what can you expect from an empty suit? 

It's good to see the doubters heard, and printed.  The more we see of Obama, the more convinced I am that the man really has nothing to say, largely because he has never thought an idea through.  His is a personality-driven campaign, an act of showmanship, not statesmanship.  But if he fails as president, we, not he, will pay the price, for there will always be court journalists and court historians who will blame his predecessor for anything that goes wrong, including the air conditioning in Air Force One.

July 27, 2008.      Permalink          

OLYMPIC ALERT

The China Olympics will be upon us next month.  Your friendly jihadist has noticed, as reported by The Times of London:

A MILITANT Islamic group has threatened to attack the Beijing Olympics with suicide bombers and biological weapons and has claimed responsibility for a string of fatal bombings and explosions in China over recent weeks.

In a video released by IntelCenter, a terrorism monitoring group, a bearded man identified as “Commander Seyfullah” is seen reading a declaration of jihad against the Olympics and warns athletes and spectators, “especially Muslims”, to stay away.

It was issued by a group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic party. The group may be allied with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement – designated a terrorist organisation by the US, China and several other countries – which seeks independence for the Muslim Uighur people of China’s far west province of Xinjiang, which Uighur separatists call East Turkestan.

Nothing like putting a little crimp in the pole vaulting.

IntelCenter said that in an earlier five-page communiqué the group had promised to unleash suicide bombers against the Olympics and told Muslims that the use of biological weapons would be religiously justified.

The Chinese authorities have mobilised more than 100,000 troops and police to guard the Olympics and have imposed draconian security restrictions in every city where events will take place.

Why do I get the feeling that Beijing wasn't the ideal choice for these Olympics?  But, let's face facts, when has dictatorship ever bothered the International Olympic Comittee?

As far as biological weapons being religiously justified, we note that jihadists seem to find a religious justification for almost everything, and they get plenty of support from the international left, which simply beseeches us to "understand" other traditions.

The Israel team at the Olympics was successfully attacked in Munich in 1972.  We hope for a better outcome this time.

July 27, 2008.       Permalink