The most lionised US politician since JFK visits Europe next week. Mass outbreaks of Obama-mania are expected. Are you prepared? Read Leonard Doyle's instant briefingThe tour "Renegade" (Barack Obama's Secret Service nickname) is due to arrive in Jordan on Monday - or he might go first to London. Or will he make a lightning dash from Amman to Baghdad or Kabul? Nobody knows. Such is the hyper-sensitivity about protecting the first black candidate for the world's top job that only the innermost members of his 300-strong inner circle of foreign policy advisers are privy to his itinerary. Nonetheless, Obama is on his way to Europe, and is expected to stop for a high-profile handshake or two in London. He's also going to France and Germany, as well as heading for Israel and the West Bank - where security fears are high. The Irish, too, want O'Bama to drop in on Moneygall (one traffic light, two pubs, pop 298.) His great-great-great-grandfather, one Fulmuth Kearney, left for America in 1850.The agendaObama has been relentlessly twitted by his opponent as a foreign policy lightweight, so his 2008 tour is all about finding the right soundbites and photo ops for the folks back home. He has to convince sceptics in Kansas and West Virginia that he's got the Right Stuff to be commander-in-chief. What they don't want are huge crowds of adoring European fans swooning before him. Instead, expect lots of earnest handshakes, dramatic backdrops and the unavoidable crowds. As a political cross-dresser, Obama is desperate to appear at the Brandenburg Gate and channel Ronald Reagan ("Mr Gorbachev, tear down that wall"). But Angela Merkel is kicking up such a fuss that he may have to settle for channelling John F Kennedy ("Ich bin ein Berliner") instead - outside Berlin's town hall. Expect some harsh words for Europeans who criticise America while taking the free ride they get on the back of America's battered army. He won't just be talking about the liberation of Europe in the Second World War and the Berlin airlift. If Washington reopens, as he hopes, under new management, Obama wants German, Belgians and Italian boots on the ground in Afghanistan - and anywhere else where hard fighting is taking place against terrorism.
The tour
"Renegade" (Barack Obama's Secret Service nickname) is due to arrive in Jordan on Monday - or he might go first to London. Or will he make a lightning dash from Amman to Baghdad or Kabul? Nobody knows. Such is the hyper-sensitivity about protecting the first black candidate for the world's top job that only the innermost members of his 300-strong inner circle of foreign policy advisers are privy to his itinerary. Nonetheless, Obama is on his way to Europe, and is expected to stop for a high-profile handshake or two in London. He's also going to France and Germany, as well as heading for Israel and the West Bank - where security fears are high. The Irish, too, want O'Bama to drop in on Moneygall (one traffic light, two pubs, pop 298.) His great-great-great-grandfather, one Fulmuth Kearney, left for America in 1850.
The agenda
Obama has been relentlessly twitted by his opponent as a foreign policy lightweight, so his 2008 tour is all about finding the right soundbites and photo ops for the folks back home. He has to convince sceptics in Kansas and West Virginia that he's got the Right Stuff to be commander-in-chief. What they don't want are huge crowds of adoring European fans swooning before him. Instead, expect lots of earnest handshakes, dramatic backdrops and the unavoidable crowds. As a political cross-dresser, Obama is desperate to appear at the Brandenburg Gate and channel Ronald Reagan ("Mr Gorbachev, tear down that wall"). But Angela Merkel is kicking up such a fuss that he may have to settle for channelling John F Kennedy ("Ich bin ein Berliner") instead - outside Berlin's town hall.
Expect some harsh words for Europeans who criticise America while taking the free ride they get on the back of America's battered army. He won't just be talking about the liberation of Europe in the Second World War and the Berlin airlift. If Washington reopens, as he hopes, under new management, Obama wants German, Belgians and Italian boots on the ground in Afghanistan - and anywhere else where hard fighting is taking place against terrorism.
I want a President, not a Generalissimo
and don't get me started on "The Homeland" "Schiller sprach zu Goethe, Steck in dem Arsch die Flöte! Goethe sagte zu Schiller, Mein Arsch ist kein Triller!"
