Americans Away From Home

I just had an interesting experience being interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live. I come away from the experience dismayed, confronted again with the realization that British people are being given some news interpretations that do not reflect what's really happening in the U.S.

BBC 5 Live has interviewed me before. Basically, it's a show about sports and news, with call-ins from listeners. Periodically they've asked me for political comment on U.S. politics and Barack Obama.

I was asked if I would comment on the Inaugural Concert in Washington, D.C. They said they'd be asking what I make of Obama's speech and whether he's going to be tackling our problems, or whether people are expecting too much.

"The party's already started" is the way they introduced the interview, and then asked about the concert. But before I could comment on Obama's speech or talk about expectations, they introduced a man they said was an "expert on U.S. politics" who teaches at two UK universities. The interviewer asked if people liked Obama's policies, or just liked him because of the way he presented himself. The professor replied, "That's a brilliant question." This apparently made the interviewer like him so much that he spent the rest of the interview letting the guy spout off negatives about Obama.  The guy's argument was that Obama is an unknown with little substance.

Suddenly they made a brief sports announcement (someone had won a snooker tournament).

When they came back, I started to say, "With respect, I must disagree with your other guest." Then I'd explain why.  That was my plan.

Instead, they introduced a third person, a BBC reporter in Washington named Anita, who they said was at the concert. Anita said she'd only seen the tail end of the concert, yet she reported on the ambience and the crowd. She said she was astonished to see how reverential the entire crowd was toward Obama.

Anita said there were "hundreds of people there." (It was more like hundreds of thousands; 300,000 according to the Washington Post). She reported that the entire crowd got quiet when Obama spoke, implying he was God-like. She said she'd never seen anything like it, and backed that up with an interview she did with a minister at a church service that morning.

I disagreed with the minister, too! He was asked if Obama's style of religion differed from George Bush's. He made it clear that Obama comes from a fiery tradition of the church, and implied that Obama would be a religion-expounding President.  It made me want to jump in with a comment about theocracy, but the taped interview continued.

Asked if Obama were more hype than hope, the minister seemed to agree with that too.

If I were British, listening to the interview, I'd have concluded that Obama has no substance, it's all rock-star worship, that he's going to lead the U.S. up a religious path, and that essentially, Obama is only popular because of hype.

What rubbish! (as they say in the UK).

I'd have pointed out that Obama is not an unknown, after two years of specifics and every policy spelled out on the website. I'd have discussed that Americans didn't vote for him because of his "presentation," (as the interviewer suggested and the guests agreed), but because they wanted real change from the mess created by Bush Republicans. I'd have told them I believe that Obama's appeal to hopefulness does not mean he has no programs.

When the host asked the other people if Americans understand the policies rather than the presenter, I wanted to shout "Yes they did! Why do you think they elected Obama?"

Coming after so many interviews on British television where the interviewer presented negative questions attacking Obama, this reminded me of all of them. The funniest one? When Obama had just made his triumphant Berlin speech, seen all over the world and attended by every person who could possibly get there - yet the TV interviewer asked me, "Well, Obama's speech didn't go over well in the U.S., did it?"

I come away from tonight's BBC interview with enhanced understanding of why it is that British people often get the wrong opinion of the U.S. Or, I wonder, could it be that for people who, in general, are less hopeful and more cynical than Americans, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy?

America. Hope. That's what made us. Did the founding fathers feel dejected with the air of criticism and impossibility, hopelessness, that I see repeatedly here in the UK?

Enthusiasm, energy, upbeat, Can Do attitude - things that define America and American attitudes. This is what to expect from Barack Obama - and why I believe he will be a great U.S. President.

Carole