London Times on Barack

> The British can be masters at their own language when they wish to be. This is
> powerful. Are we as smart as the British to recognize the true gem we have? Too
> bad the rest of the planet can’t vote in our elections for it would be a
> mandate. Time will tell.
>
>
>
> PRESIDENTIAL PERFORMANCE
>
> There's astonishingly little of the actor about Barack Obama, and that's meant
> as a compliment. He doesn't soar or reach for rhetorical climaxes.
> He doesn't twist his audiences' heartstrings even when he's talking of matters
> close to his heart. When he speaks of his wife or his “precious daughters”,
> there's no throb in his voice. And does this make him bland or dull? Quite the
> opposite.
>
> Somehow he has mastered the art of conveying feeling, strong feeling, without
> seeming emotionally manipulative. He stands there in his sober suit. His voice
> is firm, his body-language surprisingly still. He makes few, if any, movements
> with his hands or arms. In terms of delivery, he's as far from the Rev Jeremiah
> Wright, the old preacher he manages to berate without disowning, as it is
> possible to be. And all this combines to reinforce his basic message: I have a
> black face, but I am capable of representing the nation in all its diversity.
>
> Indeed, you might almost say that he's leadership incarnate. Never, even for a
> moment, does Obama lose a sense of quiet power and effortless authority. He
> radiates dignity and decency. Myself, I didn't see all his speech, but I saw him
> tackle difficult subjects: Rev Wright, the “stain” of slavery, Israel and “
> the perverse and hateful ideology of radical Islam”, the supposedly “wild
> and wide-eyed liberals” who mistake his candidacy for a form of affirmative
> action, the exit polls that suggest he might be a polarizing force and, of
> course, his own ethnic origins.
>
> Throughout, he struck me as infinitely credible and, indeed, presidential.
>
> Remember Tony Blair's embarrassingly actorly reading of the lesson at Diana's
> funeral? Now imagine him in Obama's situation. The smile, the voice, the
> undulations of the body would be ingratiating. He would be saying, as ham actors
> often implicitly do: love me. Have you seen a replay of Richard Nixon's Checkers
> speech? Imagine how he would have dealt with the passage in which Obama talks of
> his multihued family, starting with the grandparents who gave their all to the
> Second World War. Then call up YouTube and look at Obama in Philadelphia .
>
> Somehow his serious and sober charisma leaves you feeling that, not only is he
> the man to heal the divisions left from America's very beginnings, but that he
> has the assurance, the intelligence, the stature to deal with such matters as
> terrorism, global warming, a faltering economy. As unactorly actor he gets five
> stars from me. As a president -- well, perhaps the world will see.
>
> BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE
> London Times