Obama

You can say what you like (and I probably will) about Barack Obama and his bid for the US Democrats' Presidential nomination, but that was a damn fine speech. And he is also there on You Tube, too.

I was quite impressed, but then an English Green is not foremost amongst the people Barack needs to convince!

The cynic in me says that if he is sincere and honest the corporate Democlican/Republocrat establishment will do everything in their power (by fair means or foul) to keep him away from the office of President, and if he is not, then, well, same old same old - with added disillusionment if he manages to inspire a lot of confidence and idealism.

Nevertheless, he should at least make the fight for the Democratic nomination more interesting than it would otherwise have been if solely dominated by the Clinton machine, and even if not successful may at least raise the possibility in some American minds that there are different and better ways of going about things.

That a major American politician can come out and say that he wants to end the war in Iraq and that it was a mistake from the start is a good thing in itself.

This bit was particularly promising:

And as people have looked away in disillusionment and frustration, we know what's filled the void. The cynics, and the lobbyists, and the special interests who've turned our government into a game only they can afford to play. They write the checks and you get stuck with the bills, they get the access while you get to write a letter, they think they own this government, but we're here today to take it back. The time for that politics is over. It's time to turn the page.

Let us hope that this voice added to the Naderites and Independents, Greens and others begins to build the sort of consensus for change in the corporate-lobbyist dominated official politics of America that is needed, alongside grass roots mobilisation. What happens in America affects the rest of us everywhere on the planet. We shall be watching closely.