Why this Blog?

A place where I can lament the changing times; for eccentric comments on current affairs and for unfashionable views, expressed I hope, in cogent style; also occasional cris de coeur largely concerned, I regret to say, with myself.



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Saturday 14 February 2009

Barack Obama and Winston S. Churchill

Today, the Associated Press has an article covering President Obama's success in getting the U.S. Congress to pass his $787 billion economic stimulus package.

The President is quoted as saying: "This historic step won't be the end of what we do to turn our economy around, but rather the beginning..."

Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph reports that President Obama has returned to the British Embassy the bust of Sir Winston Churchill (by Sir Jacob Epstein) that was loaned to President George W. Bush in 2001, the loan being extended for the duration of President Bush's second term in office.  The Telegraph article suggests that President Obama is more likely to draw inspiration from President Abraham Lincoln than from the former British Prime Minister and wartime leader.

The bust of Churchill by Sir Jacob Epstein
Image source: here

Now I cannot imagine that President Obama - or even any of his advisors - reads my blog (!) but I should like to use this platform to draw attention to a quote from Churchill (that so-frequently quoted man).  The quote comes from late 1942 following the second battle of El Alamein, in which British and British Empire and Commonwealth Forces commanded by General (later Field-Marshal) Montgomery defeated Generalfeldmarschall Rommel's Afrika Korps.  Churchill said of the victory: "This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Regardless of his feelings concerning Churchill, the President may wish to reflect on these words in regard to his economic stimulus package.

Until the next time.

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