from my perspective the primary difference between the two is that Obama is The President and Party Leader, while Mr. Garrett is an MP... that alone creates a great deal of distance in any comparison.

Obama's vision has yielded precious little in the way of domestic reform. what has come about has been accomplished through the policy setting authority of the Executive office, which has accounted for the international progress you noted.  anything requiring the cooperation of Congress has gone nowhere. they (the Congress) are most interested in maintaining the status quo of self-protection and self interest. if Obama, as the Party Leader, cannot garner the support of his own majority holding members to pass meaningful legislation for the benefit of the country and where corporate interests are not given priority, what chance does Mr. Garrett have as a lone MP? if we are to see domestic progress, just as in Oz, we here in the US must elect legislators that share "our" vision.

as for Obama's vision, i dont know that he really had one.  the "vote for change" was a backlash against the Bush Administration more than anything else.  maybe the problem is that we as a people dont really want that much change, we only wanted to toss the other guys out.  i fault Obama for not taking the liberal majority to task, but then neither do we.


--- In powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au, tomspencer@... wrote:

Dear Dingus

Hi.  I'm interested by the question of whether Mr Obama has
vision, like PGa.  He seems subject to the same forces through
which PGa has gotta' act, and appears (to me at least) largely
trapped on climate change by the coal unions and companies.
Also, journalist Garry Wills has described the US Pres as an
"Entangled Giant", trapped by the need of a "National Security
State" to maintain 1000 overseas (largely secret) military bases
- http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23110).

Yet Obama has re-engaged on Kyoto, the Middle East, and reducing
nukes.  Maybe despite appearing to be in the pocket of Wall St,
he's TOO idealistic on health care and other domestic issues, and
persists in a Lincoln-esque vision of unity with others who (when
not being racist) have described him as both a Nazi and a
communist!

t