From The Sunday
Times August 16, 2009

Barack Obama catches cold as economic virus spreads

The uproar over healthcare reforms is a symptom of how Americans are falling out of love with the new president

Tony Allen-Mills
Comments 19
Recommend 4

Arriving in Montana to join battle with his critics on Friday, President Barack Obama stepped from Air Force One, stripped off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. Little more than six months after he swept into office with some of the highest approval ratings recorded, he is fighting to save his historic presidency from turning into a one-term wonder.

Obama was ready for a vigorous defence of the healthcare reforms that have spawned verbal fisticuffs at public meetings across the country. In the event, the Montana meeting unfolded with a subdued politeness that left some White House aides wishing it had been a little more feisty, so their champion could have shown off his sparring skills.

Yet for all the heat that has recently been generated by the healthcare debate, amid wild accusations about euthanising granny and manipulating mobs, it became clear last week that medicine is far from the president’s only problem, and there may be no early cure for the economic ills that are crippling his promises of change and hope.

Speaking in an aircraft hangar moments after a hailstorm had passed over Bel-grade, Montana, the 48-year-old president attempted to calm the confrontational climate that has soured debate about his attempts to overhaul an expensive and inefficient US healthcare establishment.

Sticking to time-honoured presidential tradition, he blamed the media for getting his message wrong, and for focusing on a minority of angry protesters. “TV loves a ruckus,â€