Day Jar View

I’m no political scholar, particularly on the US, but I met the news that President Obama had retaken the oath of office last night with a wry grin.

I say President Obama but, according to the reports, the White House Counsel team recommended that he retake the oath because both he and the Chief Justice said one word out of order when he took the oath for the first time on Tuesday, and that this might give conspiracy theorists and pundits an excuse to claim that he wasn’t ever officially President.

When I watched the swearing in, I had spotted that the word had been misplaced (and what a word to misplace), and had thought that someone or other might make a fuss, which they duly did.

Good on him though for putting it to bed straight away, rather than giving the fuel to the kind of ridiculous theories that have dogged previous events such as 9/11.

Congratulations Mr President. Again.

On hearing that Bush had left a note for Obama in the desk of the oval office, I couldn’t help wondering what it might say.

It could be something as innocuous as “Good luck – you’ll need it!”, or perhaps, “The red button is under the desk”; but I’d like to think it contains something similar to that note which passed between Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev in the sixties.

The story goes that after Khruschev was deposed, he left a note to his successor:

“To my successor: When you find yourself in a hopeless situation which you cannot escape, open the first letter, and it will save you. Later, when you again find yourself in a hopeless situation from which you cannot escape, open the second letter.”

And sure enough, it wasn’t long before Brezhnev found himself in a tight spot, so he opened the first letter, and it simply said:

“Blame it all on me.”

So he duly did, and it saved him,  prolonging his time in office significantly. 

Soon, he found himself in other difficult situation, but instead of panicking he dug out the 2nd letter. This one said:

“Sit down, and write two letters.”

I have to admit I’m a bit jealous of those who are spending the next few days in Washington. I’m not an American, but the sheer spectacle of it all will be something special I’m sure.

I will be glued to the BBC tomorrow, and will no doubt wish on a number of occasions that we could have Obama in number 10, instead of that Scot (can you say that these days?) Brown – if ever anyone needed a visit from Obama ASAP it’s him: maybe some of the personality will rub off.

I have to admit to a more-than-passing interest in the US Elections each time they roll around.

I don’t get too heavily involved in the policy detail, and I don’t donate any money to the candidate promising to save Americans a few cents on their $4 a gallon (I wish!) gasoline.

But as a piece of pure theatre, there really is no equal. Our own party conferences, viewed alongside their US equivalents, have a whiff of the church hall meeting about them. Half the time, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bake sale being conducted at the back during the breaks.

This time around, of course, the interest and the stakes are high in the US. They have the opportunity to elect the first black (actually mixed-race) man, or the first Female Vice-President (a gun-toting, global-warming-denier from Alaska). The good news is that at least one of them will make their way to the White House next January. But had Sarah Palin not joined the McCain ticket, I’m not sure that Americans would have been ready to elect either of them if the alternative had been two Conservative, middle-aged, white males.

Whataver, the inclusion of Palin makes this race all the more exciting: it will be touted as a race between a Black man and a Woman, naturally, but the choice isn’t that stark. Bush’s legacy has ensured that McCain had a fight on his hands from the start, and the emergence of Obama as a charismatic, eloquent smoothie from a mixed-race background would have been a black and white choice, literally. 

Now American voters have to decide whether they want an elitist Black man as President, or a pensioner who can’t remember how many homes he has (7 apparently) with a woman seemingly brought in to shore up the vote amongst bitter Clinton supporters who might be tempted to switch.

From this side of the pond, America’s image is in need of some serious TLC after the Iraq debacle, and its general foreign policy ham-fistedness. The best thing it could show to the world is that it has the presence of mind to show it can change, and elect Barack Obama in November. Sorry Sarah – your turn next time perhaps?