Posted on 10/02/2008 2:22:15 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Barack Obama is a "decidedly liberal" senator "who was finding his feet, and then got diverted by his presidential ambitions", according to a frank verdict delivered to Gordon Brown by the British ambassador to the United States.
Sir Nigel Sheinwald, ambassador in Washington since last year, delivered his unvarnished assessment of the White House front runner in a seven-page letter to the Prime Minister, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, just before the Democratic nominee's visit to Downing Street just over two months ago.
The candid letter, marked as containing "sensitive judgements" and requesting officials to "protect the contents carefully" gives a remarkable insight into how the Foreign Office views the political phenomenon who stunned Mr Brown's inner circle by defeating their favourite, Hillary Clinton, in the Democratic primaries.
Although the picture Sir Nigel paints is a highly complimentary one - Mr Obama's speeches are "elegant" and "mesmerising", he is "highly intelligent" and has "star quality" - he also judges that his "policies are still evolving" and that if elected he will "have less of a track record than any recent president".
The letter's contents suggest that Mr Brown could initially find it difficult to deal with a President Obama because he remains a largely unknown quantity who "resists pigeon-holing" and the leak is likely to complicate relations.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
It’s already down off the link. Thank you for posting the full text.
Brilliant! It would be funnier if it weren't so damn TRUE!
We should call this memo "THE Downing Street memo" -- as in way more important than that other so called Downing Street memo.
Thank God the Brits haven't totally lost their minds. Who will be the next Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher? McCain better grow a pair and lead, follow or get of the way and let another Republican be a champion for capitalism, federalism and this democratic republic founded on individual freedom and liberty. We need a great communicator to counter the socialist agenda and remind the world what we stand for.
Meanwhile, we've completely lost France and Germany... Sarkozy looks past all the actions of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Reserve and blames deregulation and "laissez faire" for our credit meltdown... funny, I didn't know we had a laissez faire banking and mortgage system, especially when the government holds 70% of the mortgages! Government intervention and mismanagement triggered and fueled this crisis... reforms are needed but placing the blame on a lack of regulation of business is moronic when government sponsored entities caused most of the mess.
Judging by your handle, I think you know exactly what I mean,
“Under no circumstances should the contents of this memo be divulged to the following American news outlets (Appendix A contains a list of telephone and fax numbers and particular points of contact employed by these news services, that should likewise not be provided this information.) Importantly, this is not an inclusive list, and other media personalities who should not be contacted as well should be approved before the memo is not divulged to them either.”
Wrong !! Ha!
Existentialism. Read any Victor Frankl? If not, you should. Good stuff.
What kind of imbeciles would fail to put Obambi into the socialist pigeon-hole?!
I would assume that the British foreign affairs officials are just as far left as our are. Therefore they can't decide to pidgeon hole Obama with Alinsky, Trotsky or Lenin.
They misspelled “a douchebag”.
Diverted by his presidential ambitions my arse. He was groomed for years for just the right moment and I'd like to know who the Marxist groomer(s) are.
Not only will the United States suffer and make The Fall, but Obama will lead to the world’s suffering. The world cannot afford a second-coming of Neville Chamberlain. But, even at that, he is WORSE than Neville Chamberlain. He is the enemy.
Thanks for posting the entire text.
Let’s face it..with Palin’s win...the Washington Times story of the FBI raid on Obama’s poker buddy, Biden’s lies, his gas pumping buddy..lmfao...and now this...this turned out to be a pretty good night.
This is really embarrassing...a leaked private assessment. Normally this would be very damaging to diplomatic relations, but you know, I can’t shake the feeling that this might have been deliberately leaked to counter that Gordon Brown gaffe last month when he seemed to be backing the democrats in the presidential race.
Pigeon-holing - as in put into a pigeon hole. In other words, neatly summed up. Put into a nice definable category.
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