Justin Pickard on "The Obama effect"

Justin Pickard — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:33:12 +0000

Of course, even if true, the phrase "[t]hey thought I was mad" has certain pop-cultural undertones. Presumably, Lammy is some kind of mad scientist.

The Obama effect, Anthony Barnett

Anthony Barnett — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:47:54 +0000

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): In a brief post in the Times David Lammy MP, the Minister for Skills, who met Obama some years back at Harvard writes about the impact of his election. He says,

In the end politics is not the art of the possible: far from it. It is the art of making things possible.

There is a very important issue here with New Labour. Indeed, Lammy was the first member of the government to engage with the argument about the political class (we reproduced it in OK) and has a broader understanding of this than Hazel Blears. But traditional, Clinton-loving, triangulating New Labour had a very different 'practical' approach. He reports,

I came back from America and told people that I believed the first black president was already waiting to step forward. They thought I was mad.

Who could those 'they' be, I wonder!

open Democracy News Analysis - The Obama effect, Anthony Barnett - Comments

Justin Pickard on "The Obama effect"

The Obama effect, Anthony Barnett