Camelot Redux

I was listening to BBC Radio 4 when they broadcast an interview with a lady in the United States. She said she was voting for Barack Obama because her neighbourhood was run down, and the parks needed fixing and crime was soaring in her area.

Writing in the FT, Clive James puts it well

Great presidents inspire but they also deliver. The plain fact is, Mr Obama cannot deliver what he has promised. The problems he will confront are too difficult. The parallel with Tony Blair is impossible for a Briton to ignore. Enthusiasm among Mr Obama’s supporters is not just naive, it borders on the deranged, much like the enthusiasm in Britain in 1997 for Mr Blair. Remember how everything was possible, finally? “Things can only get better.” Look how that worked out

Postscript: It was even better when they spoke to a man in Kenya who hoped Obama would win because his village does not have water, power, or decent roads. He used exactly the same phrase the other woman used: "Obama will make a difference"