Reality strikes for Obama?

There is great briefing in this week’s Economist on the new President

With President Obama due in the UK anytime soon, and without the normal pressures of school life upon us, it would seem an apt time to consider Obama’s performance so far.

I penned an article for fptp earlier in the year charting Obama’s ups and downs and the Economist article covers many of the same themes but also takes a shot at Obama for surrounding himself with too many politicians at a time when the economy is teetering on the brink. Moreover, it is also critical of the fact that Obama has already got an eye on the 2012 election when he should be focusing all his energies on the task at hand.

Commentators everywhere have been wondering when Obama’s honeymoon may end. Thus far Obama has not had a smooth ride and his handling of the AIG bonus issue looked like he had hit the ground with a bump. The article, however, strikes an optimistic note:

‘During the election campaign Mr Obama was frequently slow to respond to crises. Then, just when his supporters began to despair and his opponents began to smell blood, he would pull himself together and rise to the occasion. Mr Obama has been slow to get the full measure of the presidency. He has failed to establish firm priorities, and has all too often let events dictate his agenda. All in all, his performance has looked shaky. But at last this week there were signs, when he revealed his bank bail-out plan, that he is starting to do what he did so often during the campaign: justifying the enormous faith that has been put in him.’

Time will tell. We should watch his performance at the G20 summit closely.