London Says: Calm down! He's not President of the World

By Matthew Parris from The London Times Online:

Everyone, from Australia to Kenya, seems to think Obama will improve their lives. They should prepare for disappointment.

When half of mankind seems lifted by hope, nothing looks meaner than to disparage the dream. But what is this Obama mania? The world did not change for ever on Tuesday. No messiah has come among us. Miracles have not become possible. There is no new dawn. Calm down dear, it's only a US presidential election.

Here's my entry for Daniel Finkelstein's Comment Central competition for an eight-word expression of hope for the President-elect of the United States. Eight words precisely. “I hope he will let us down gently.”

But oh, what a long way down: down from the crest of expectation on which Barack Obama now surfs, on to the rough shingle of daily politics. Would that the wave might subside smoothly into the gentle swell of history. Would that it were not destined to break, dashing dreams and spawning new cynicism.

But I fear it will. Writing from Australia, and reading the local and the British press reaction to this election, I am appalled by the unanimity.

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More Pics from Sarah Palin Visiting Fredericksburg, Virginia

2008 March For Life - Wash, DC Attracted Record 400-500,000 Attendees

You had to be there to believe the number of people who attended this year's "March for Life" event in Washington, D.C. The line of people was at least 50 people wide and got as wide as 75 in some parts of the roadways. People walked at a fairly brisk pace since it was quite cold and damp to the tune of about 50 lines wide per minute or so. This went on for at least three hours solid and I still couldn't see the end of the marchers despite my view of nearly 1/2 mile in both directions! I put the attendance at about 400-500,000 people which easily makes it the largest year.

Suspiciously, the news reports used terms like "tens of thousands" or just "thousands". This is a travesty in bad reporting! Anyone who was there could have more than comfortably said "hundreds of thousands" and been well within accuracy and unbiased reporting rules without any fear of challenge.

This year marks 35 years since killing America's children indiscriminately was made lawful by the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling since "personhood" could not be established for sure.

Since then, even Ms. Roe is now 100% pro-life and makes a speech every year at this event telling attendees this.

The federal law enforcement agencies and police of Washington, DC refuse to use the hovering helicopters to do any kind of crowd counts for this event! They stopped about 5-7 years ago in fact, yet they continue to do it for any other event of any magnitude so they can plan accordingly for staff, traffic control, emergency services and so forth.

Logic would dictate that ANY march of this magnitude would demand an accurate count for next year's budget process at the very least! For shame Washington, DC! Give it a fair count and let the numbers fall where they may!