POSTSCRIPT
When Barack Obama won the US presidential election four years ago, the BBC commented that when he took over from George W Bush _ a few months later he would be inheriting ''the in-tray from Hell''. It wasn't far off the mark. Certainly things haven't been a barrel of laughs for Mr President. But he can't complain: After all, he wanted the job.
In these turbulent times you wonder why anyone would aspire to be a president, prime minister, dictator, despot, tyrant or whatever. Mr Obama appears to have aged about five years in the last six months. Even the winning smile of the Thai prime minister seems to be a bit strained at times, although you can't really blame her with everything that's going on.
Political columnist David Broder once wrote: ''Anyone who wants the presidency so much that he spends two years organising and campaigning for it is not to be trusted.'' A trifle harsh, perhaps, but maybe he should have added ''and must be a little bit daft too''. Because really, who in his right mind would want that job?
After four years, that in-tray might be a fraction friendlier than before, but is still distinctly unappealing.
Nice meeting you too
Anyone aspiring to be Mr President needs a tough skin and has to put up with more than a fair share of insults. Someone who knew all about this was former president Gerry Ford. Take Lyndon Johnson's observation on Ford: ''Gerry Ford's a nice guy, but he played too much football with his helmet off.'' Ford had a pretty rough time of it when he was at the helm. One political observer commented: ''He looks like the guy in a science fiction movie who is the first to see the Creature. ''
Richard Nixon, of course, took quite a lot of flak during his presidency. US writer Norman Cousins commented: ''Nixon's motto was if two wrongs don't make a right, try three.''
Possibly Nixon's biggest critic was former president Harry Truman who variously described his political opponent as ''shifty-eyed'', a ''no-good lying bastard'' and a few other terms of endearment. Truman once observed of Nixon: ''He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and if he ever caught himself telling the truth he'd lie just to keep his hand in.''
Take it from the top
Initially I had a few reservations about Bill Clinton when he was elected in 1992 because he was the first US president who was younger than Crutch. Presidents were supposed to be old and boring, but here was this fresh-faced whipper-snapper who could even hold a tune on the saxophone. It made me feel really ancient.
Having a saxophone-playing president was really refreshing, although I might have thought differently if bagpipes were his instrument of choice. He won me over from the moment he launched into Your Mama Don't Dance at the inaugural. There are not many world leaders who could do that.
One suspects that if George W Bush had picked up a sax at his inaugural the auditorium would have emptied pretty quickly. However, George W was more my age. In fact he was exactly my age, being born on the same day in the same year. But I think that's as far as our similarities go.
In your guts ...
The slogans for this year's campaign - ''Forward'' (Obama) and ''Believe in America'' (Romney) - are not particularly inspiring. Although I was only two years old at the time, the slogans for Harry S Truman's 1948 campaign were much more lively - ''I'm Just Wild About Harry'' and ''Give 'Em Hell Harry''.
I'm ancient enough to remember on black and white television, people chanting ''I Still Like Ike'' in 1956 and eight years later ''All The Way With LBJ''. Ronald Reagan's 1980s campaign featured the less than inspirational ''The Time Is Now'', which if you examine it, means absolutely nothing. In 1964, Barry Goldwater's ''In Your Heart You Know He's Right'' backfired, as it quickly became adulterated by his opponents into ''In Your Guts You Know He's Nuts''.
Whoops!
In fact political slogans can create more trouble than they are worth. In Britain the 1979 Labour Party Slogan was ''Labour Is The Answer'', to which graffiti artists added ''If Labour Is The Answer It Must Be A Bloody Silly Question''. The Conservatives also ran into trouble when Mrs Thatcher was first running for the premiership. The campaign was originally going to be based on the slogan ''Put A Woman On Top''. This was hastily abandoned for reasons which don't need explaining.
Caledonian greetings
In last week's column I wondered aloud if there are any Thais with Scottish accents. Well, the answer is ''aye krap''. A Scottish reader who lives with his Thai wife in Perth, Scotland, informs me her conversation is littered with ''wee'' and ''aye'' and her accent sometimes raises eyebrows when she goes south of the border to England.
Mind you, she has now lived in Scotland longer than she did in Thailand, so it is hardly surprising. And at the New Year she can be heard greeting Scottish friends with ''Lang may yer lum reek'', but I bet she still manages a ''Sawasdee Pee Mai''.
One wonders, are there any Thai ladies or gents out there with an Irish accent?
Contact PostScript via email at oldcrutch@hotmail.com.
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About the author
Writer: Roger CrutchleyPosition: Writer
Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2012/11/04/grim-white-house-in-tray/
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