Obama - what they said/mean
- 5 Nov 08, 09:35 AM
Gordon Brown: "I know Barack Obama and we share many values...We both have determination to show that government can act to help people fairly through these difficult times facing the global economy."
Political translation - I know Barack Obama, Mr Cameron, and you are no Barack Obama.
- Obama's a progressive like me who believes in the role of the government, internationalism and helping the many not the few.
David Cameron: "In these difficult times people everywhere are crying out for change. Barack Obama is the first of a new generation of leaders who will deliver it."
Political translation - It's time for a change. I am the next in that generation of leaders who will deliver it.
Alex Salmond: "This was a victory for optimism over pessimism, for hope over fear."
- Scotland's first Minister extended an invitation to Barack Obama who traces his ancestry to William the Lion, who ruled Scotland from 1165 to 1214, to visit the country in Scotland's Year of Homecoming in 2009.
Political translation - Vote for cheery Alex not gloomy Gordon in the Glenrothes by-election on Thursday.
- If Obama visits Scotland they'll stop asking me about Iceland.
UPDATE, 12:56 PM: Yet more evidence at prime minister's questions of how our political leaders will try to surf the Obama wave. As previewed yesterday David Cameron turned Gordon Brown's conference warning that "this is no time for a novice" back on him. The prime minister replied by picking another quote from that very same speech "What I said was that serious times needed serious people. Once again you've proved you are not serious."
Then it was onto Cameron's message on change: "On the day the American people voted for change aren't people in this country entitled to ask: how much longer have we got to put up with more of the same from a government that has failed?"
That was followed by Brown's claim that the American people voted for change because they wanted "progressive policies" and that "Conservative Party policies are rejected in America and in Britain..."
Nick Clegg claimed to be the British advocate of Obama's most important policy - cutting taxes on the middle classes by raising them on the richest.
Prepare for this Obamania to go on...and on...and on.
