THE DIFFERENCE BEING...:

This is the Queen's Speech of a team in a tearing hurry: The Queen's Speech shows that Nick Clegg and David Cameron want to get things done, and fast (Matthew d'Ancona, 5/23/10, Daily Telegraph)

In his masterly new book on the rise of Barack Obama, The Bridge, David Remnick reflects on the transition from the campaign trail to the White House: "In these inaugural days it was hard for [Obama] – for anyone – to acknowledge that governing would be far different from campaigning, a switch from poetry to prose, from celebration and adulation to battle and compromise, even defeat… He would encounter his own limitations, and the public would see the gulf between romance and accomplishment." [...]

For all their Rat Pack insouciance as a double act, Cameron and Nick Clegg are suddenly communicating a furious, implacable desire to get things done, and get them done fast. Last week's 36-page document spelling out more of the coalition's programme for government was predictably attacked for the number of reviews and commissions it lists. Some policies are indeed already languishing in the long grass. But what is striking is how many are not. Our sneak preview of this Tuesday's Queen's Speech is an encouraging insight into a Government that is determined to take action immediately and aggressively.

So what went right? Part of the answer lies in Cameron's character. Though he came of age in the Thatcher decade, a season of Conservative radicalism, his temperament is not excitable: he is not drawn to the demotic, the angry flourish, the waving of the Tory fist. Occasionally, he can be downright diffident. But it is a mistake to confuse this aspect of his personality with a lack of ambition, as politician and policymaker. He has always wanted to leave his mark, not just hold the top job.

...that all the UR cared about was adding President to the top line of his resume.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 23, 2010 7:48 AM