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This World: Obama and Me

BBC Two

Back to those emergency parachutes: This World: Obama and Me powerfully demonstrated how impossible it is to be the person tasked with those big decisions, with being the “saviour”.

Here was another excellent structure: part timeline of the president’s first year, courtesy of newsreel footage, and part personal insight into how those 12 months affected the opinions of six Obama voters in their daily lives. Flitting from big picture to very specific stories, this was a strong set of flashcards to guide your own assessment of his progress, showing both those still in thrall of this new American Dream, and those absolutely not. “For the first time in my life, government works,” said Charles, an often-tearful charity worker whose organisation had received extra funds under Obama’s recovery package — and who considered Independence Day 2009 the country’s first, as black people such as himself were now free too. Karen, however, became the only black face at a protest against Obama’s proposed healthcare reforms. “Can we bankrupt America? Yes We Can”.

Well, it wasn’t quite a balanced account. Many of the anti-Obama voices were made to look ridiculous — Karen’s criticism was couched in footage of her daughter saying she was always ranting about something; other protesters were shown giving laughable soundbites such as: “I’ve met several people from Russia here today and they’re frightened.”

But whatever your political perspective, you’d have to be pretty hard-hearted to watch this and not feel some sympathy for Obama, as unrealistic expectations heaped up around him on issues from troop withdrawal to the colour of his wife’s handbag. He might well give up his own rescue parachute for just one day with that Minoan wine ...