An original agenda, please!

Barack Hussein Obama is the hottest thing in American politics and seems to be a shoe-in for the Democratic presidential nominee. Supposedly even Hillary Clinton, the sure-fire next president of the United States for some six years now, is well advised to back out of the race if Barack decides to run. (It would be progress to see three Great Western Nations -Germany, France & USA- with female leaders, wouldn't it?).

When you've been reading these hyped success-stories for some time it's a bit of a disappointment to see Barack in real life for the first time and learn more about his political views. The same goes for Hillary by the way. It seems to me that the major political challengers of incumbents these days are more preoccupied with basing their views on what spin-doctors tell them they should say according to polls and focus groups, then on a genuine personal political vision. That goes for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ségolène Royal, David Cameron and Wouter Bos. They carefully choose their standpoints on the war in Iraq, health care reform or democratic improvements listening to what they thínk voters want to hear. There is nothing wrong with listing to the people or with carefully choosing standpoints of course, but it would be nice to see a future political leader with some original political views of her/his own or addressing new important issues. At least John McCain has a campaign reform agenda as a defining characteristic.

Maybe I'm wrong or naive, but I almost long for the days when Bill Clinton and Tony Blair where climbing up the ranks.