OP-ED: Believing the Obama Hype (Telegraph, UK)

When Barack Obama takes office on Tuesday, it will be an event of enormous significance, not just for America but for the world. Rarely has so much been expected of a single politician. Rarely have the problems he was expected to solve been more intractable.

Mr Obama has already been credited with almost superhuman powers to transform America and the world. But in truth, the foreign policies he will pursue are unlikely to be radically different from those of his predecessor. His America will still be a staunch supporter of Israel and extremely hostile to Iran. He will continue "the war on terror", even if the rhetoric he uses to accompany that war changes. He will significantly expand America's commitment in Afghanistan, while winding down its operation in Iraq. He will close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, but he will not release all of its inmates. What he will do with them is still an unsolved problem, as is the nature of the sort of trials they will be given – if, indeed, they are given trials at all.

As far as economic policy is concerned, Mr Obama proposes a gigantic, $800 billion stimulus package consisting of public works and tax cuts. Notoriously, Mr Bush, whose rhetoric was consistently against "big government", presided over the biggest expansion of the US government since the Second World War, when he bailed out the country's banks, mortgage companies and insurance companies.

For all that, Mr Obama's election marks a radical departure from the past, not least because he is the first African American to hold the office of President.

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