Obama Hosting a National Talk Show (UK)

Barack Obama has become a regular fixture on US television. The President knows that he still has enough novelty value and star power to get the networks to clear their airtime and he's grabbing every chance to dominate the agenda from the bully pulpit.

It is a class act. Although at official events Mr Obama's message is usually scripted and read from teleprompter screens, he can talk his way out of trouble. I was moved to see the President win over US Marines at Camp Lejeune, although he opposed the Iraq war in which 4,000 of their comrades-in-arms lost their lives.

For now, his talk is invariably about the economy. Mr Obama is the most visible new president - not only because he's a great communicator, but because Europe is blaming America for the global economic crisis and looking to Mr Obama to lead the way out it. The President's ubiquity is designed to tell the US that it is in control of its own destiny. He must win this argument if his presidency is to succeed.

Even when the Administration doesn't have the best arguments, or gets badly mauled, the checks and balances of the US Constitution ensure that the country's options are debated at length; considered decisions emerge by a process of attrition.

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