Obama bows to Emperor Akihito excessively deferentially. Photo: Google Images
Barack Obama Dream Fades as China Visit Fails to Bring Change
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Even his allies feel let down by the president’s lack of progress both in Asia and at home

Gazing serenely from the Great Wall of China last week, President Barack Obama appeared to be making the most of one of the supreme perks of White House occupancy — a private guided tour of Asia’s most spectacular tourist destination.

White House aides exulted that perfectly choreographed pictures of this moment would make front pages around the world. Yet an experience Obama declared to be “magical” turned sour as he returned home to a spreading domestic revolt that is fanning Democratic unease.

It was not just that the US media have suddenly turned a lot more sceptical about a president with grand ambitions to reshape politics at home and abroad — even one previously friendly newspaper noted dismissively: “Obama goes to China, brings home a T-shirt.”

Nor was the steady decline in the president’s approval ratings — which fell below 50% for the first time in a Gallup poll last week — the main cause of White House angst. Obama remains more popular than either Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton a year after their elections, and both presidents eventually cruised to second terms.

The real problem may be Obama’s friends — or rather, those among his formerly most enthusiastic supporters who are now having second thoughts.

The doubters are suddenly stretching across a broad section of the Democratic party’s natural constituency. They include black congressional leaders upset by the sluggish economy; women and Hispanics appalled by concessions made to Republicans on healthcare; anti-war liberals depressed by the debate over troops for Afghanistan; and growing numbers of blue-collar workers who are continuing to lose their jobs and homes.

Obama’s Asian adventure perceptibly increased the murmurings of dissent when he returned to Washington last week, having failed to wring any public concessions from China on any major issue.

For most Americans, the most talked-about moment of the trip was not the Great Wall visit but his low bow to Emperor Akihito of Japan, which the president’s right-wing critics assailed as “a spineless blunder” and excessively deferential. >>> Tony Allen-Mills in New York | Sunday, November 22, 2009

Voters: Reds Blew It for Us Too
THE SUN: LABOUR voters let down by the Government told The Sun yesterday why they were turning their back on the Party.

Our website and text service was swamped by readers backing our decision to dump PM Gordon Brown and support David Cameron's Conservatives instead.

Those backing our stand include victims of crime, families of Our Boys serving on the front-line in Afghanistan and those left devastated after losing loved ones to NHS hospital superbugs like MRSA.

But mostly it was just the ordinary man and woman in the street saying they thought the Reds had blown it too - and after 12 long years of failure and disappointment, it was finally time for a change. >>> Alex Peake | Thursday, October 01, 2009

The Sun Has Finally Set on New Labour's Love Affair with the Media
THE TELEGRAPH: Like John Major before him, Gordon Brown is now a leader at war with those who report him, says Benedict Brogan

For most people, the details of which newspapers back which parties are about as interesting as the dusty weights and pulleys that keep the conference stage sets in place. What happens behind the theatre curtain is not meant to be noticed. The workings between press and politicians come under what Alastair Campbell used to deride as "processology", of negligible interest to voters perfectly capable of making their own judgments. But every now and then it is worth pulling aside the velvet brocade to understand why things are as they are.

If anything can be said about the Prime Minister's predicament at the end of what must be his last Labour conference as leader, it is that, like John Major before him, he is now a leader at war with those who report him. Not only is his message deeply flawed, but his best route to getting it heard is being closed off.

The Sun's decision to pull the plug on Gordon Brown, and on his big day to boot, is the latest spin in a downward spiral that was already well underway. The defection of the weathervane tabloid, although expected, has had a bigger effect in the Westminster village than it will have in the wider world. Although it compounded the already dire press reaction to the Prime Minister's speech, it also marked the final collapse of relations between New Labour and the media. >>> Benedict Brogan | Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Grande-Bretagne : Le «Sun» lâche le Labour
LE TEMPS: La prise de position du tabloïd souligne la puissance du magnat de la presse Rupert Murdoch

Même la pin-up quotidienne du Sun s’en trouve chamboulée. Au lieu de la traditionnelle page 3, elle s’est retrouvée mercredi renvoyée en page 7. Le tabloïd a en effet décidé d’utiliser le congrès du Parti travailliste pour très officiellement mettre fin à son soutien à Gordon Brown. «Après douze années au pouvoir, ce gouvernement s’est perdu. Maintenant, il a perdu le soutien du Sun aussi.» Sur cinq ­pages, plus un poster à détacher au centre, le tabloïd, qui tire quotidiennement à 3 millions d’exemplaires, détruit méthodiquement le bilan du premier ministre britannique. >>> Eric Albert | Jeudi 01 Octobre 2009

Barack Obama's Health Reform Plans Are a Bitter Pill for His Personal Doctor
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama's personal doctor for more than two decades is bitterly disappointed by the health care reforms being pushed through Congress at the urging of his former patient.

Dr David Scheiner remains a big fan of the man he treated for 22 years in Chicago. But does not believe the planned overhaul goes far enough to help the poor and uninsured, and will cost too much because of pressure from the health care industry.

The 71-year-old physician, who has treated low income patients for his entire career in the city's Hyde Park neighbourhood, believes Mr Obama favours an NHS-style "single payer" system, but backed away under pressure from the health industry.

"He's a pragmatist, he wants to get something done" Dr Scheiner told The Sunday Telegraph. "But this time he should have pushed back hard against the health care lobby."

He is bitterly disappointed in the way the reforms are being organised and says he was bounced from the invitation list to a White House event because of pressure from the health lobby.

"I was all set to go to an event, I got an email from the White House the Sunday before and then suddenly I was told 'there were too many people' coming," he said. "I think they knew I was going to ask an awkward question about the single payer option."

He contends that the reforms winding their way though Congress "could bankrupt us because there are no real cost controls and the big beneficiaries will be private hospitals and insurance companies". >>> Leonard Doyle in Washington | Saturday, July 25, 2009

Pope Disappoints Muslim Leaders
AFP: AMMAN — Pope Benedict XVI urged inter-faith reconciliation on the second day of a Holy Land tour but disappointed Muslim clerics by failing to offer a new apology for remarks seen as targeting Islam.

The pontiff in a keynote address to Muslim leaders in Amman's huge Al-Hussein Mosque bemoaned "ideological manipulation of religion" and urged Muslims and Christians to unite as "worshippers of God."

"Certainly, the contradiction of tensions and divisions between the followers of different religious traditions, sadly, cannot be denied," the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics told his audience.

"However, is it not also the case that often it is the ideological manipulation of religion, sometimes for political ends, that is the real catalyst for tension and division, and at times even violence in society?"

Some clerics expressed disappointment however that the pontiff in his wide-ranging speech had made no new apology for a 2006 address in which he quoted a medieval Christian emperor who criticised some teachings of the Prophet Mohammed as "evil and inhuman." >>> Copyright © 2009 AFP | Saturday, May 9, 2009