Obituary: Obi1-CAN-obi's Campaign Going Down In Flames!

What was very heartening and encouraging to me was that Obamas success was largely because he was black and because so many Americans including Republicans like myself were so proud of his running.

But his failure to succeed and why he will not become President was because from the start he ran a dishonest campaign based on style over substance, on being a snake-oil salesman of old potions dreamed up by ministers like Norman Vincent Peale many decades ago; false promises of positive thinking optimism that did not correspond with his real record in the Senate or the reality of the challenges that face America.

Most damagingly was that he was saying one thing to his fervent supporters while his campaign was saying another; on NAFTA and the war.

The final shoot-down came when his foreign policy advisor Samantha Power made the mistake of doing an interview with the most deadly and most incisive news anchor in the world: the BBCs Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight, when Paxman winkled out of her an admission that Obamas war policy in the campaign had nothing to do with his war policy when in office.

Power also admitted that if elected Obama would apply ethnic cleansing in mixed neighbourhoods in Iraq (ed: a grave breach of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and 1977 Additional Protocols) to assist a quick withdrawal.

Obama was a beautiful candidate; a mixture of Fred Astaire, Nat King Cole, Martin Luther King and John. F. Kennedy, but without the intellectual or artistic depth of any of those men.

He often reminded me of Jim Jones as his teenage fans; too young to understand the issues but old enough to be seduced by ideals; fainted in the isles and fanatically chanted “Yes we CAN!” the slogan of his campaign.

People say that Hillary is divisive but America saw an embittered woman in Michelle Obama who they instantly knew would make Hillary look like motherhood and apple pie.

Had Obama waited until the fall to come into the race he might have suceeded. He might have succeeded in pied piping a nation tired of war and economic difficulties to follow him to some unspecified promised land. But even the Rolling Stones could not have kept a gig fresh over so many months, and the “Yes we CAN” moment was to be stretched too far not to become stale.

I hope that he pulls out soon, soon enough to avoid an embarrasing defeat. It was good while it lasted......but it was just one of those things.

Paxman interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVzJtXab3p8