Ian Williams Obama is not perfect, but at least he is not deranged by Ian WilliamsSaturday, May 19th, 2012 Those

of us who said it made no difference and went on to let Margaret Thatcher win power in Britain were disastrously wrong. We still live with the consequence s. And the current crop of Republicans makes Thatcher look like everyones favouri te aunt.Barack Obama is actually a traditional Chicago politician. He takes larg e donations from corporate interests. His recent reconversion to the cause of sa me-sex marriage probably owes more to the potential munificence of gay donors th an any deep attachment to civil rights. Nonetheless Obama is very different from the recidivist Jurassic conservatives. The gay marriage issue is emblematic. Heaven knows that, in the land of serial p hilandering and rich divorce lawyers, heterosexual marriage is a somewhat compro mised issue even discounting Mitt Romneys polygamous Mormon ancestors. Interestin gly, the real die-hard conservatives who bankroll the election campaigns are not socially or religiously conservative all, any more than their neo-conservative chums are. But, between them, they know how to pull the strings of those who are .It is hardly surprising that they can work this on conservative and evangelical voters when allegedly progressive Americans are prepared to ignore their own co llective economic and social interests, and abstain or throw their vote to prote st candidates because they see Obama as insufficiently supportive, just as milli ons on the right will vote against him because they see him as insufficiently fe rvent against gay marriage or anti-abortion.Approaching the presidential electio n, the Supreme Court is pondering the constitutionality of the Obama healthcare bill, and it seems sadly likely that, in the21st century, they will decide that this faltering step forward into the 20th century is not what the Founding Fathe rs intended. The conservative majority on the bench looks at the world through a politically expedient prism and, like mostRepublican legislators, are prepared to exact any price from their fellow citizens in the interests of ensuring the d efeat of Obama. One almost has to admire their almost Bolshevik determination of purpose compared with the wobbly Democrats. Ironically, the much-reviled Obamaca re is modelled on the system introduced by then Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romne y. Symptomatic of the conservative success in promoting a fact-thin agenda, opin ion polls show that most of the elements of Obamacare enjoy popular support, but that the overall bill has been calumniated into negative ratings. But playing f ast and loose with the facts goes naturally with a flexible attitude to history, as was shown when Republicans chased each other baying into the Fox News hole a bout Obamas temerity in claiming credit for ordering the assault on Osama bin Lad ens household. Scarcely a single Republican seems to remember President George W Bush, let alone the famous Mission Accomplished banner when he landed on the USS A braham Lincoln at the beginning of 10 years of war in Iraq.While reality-based v oters should accept that a system that insures almost everyone is an advance on one that left more than 40 million people uninsured, some on the American left a re as ideologically obsessed as the right which is why so many find common groun d in supporting the derangedly conservative Ron Paul in preference to a Presiden t whose signature achievements in bringing millions into the healthcare system a nd saving large swathes of American industry are so easily overlooked when your vantage point is an ivory tower of political correctness.A big issue for some on the left, who would have picketed the Normandy landings as foreign intervention , is that Ron Paul is from the isolationist wing of American politics and wants to cut support for Israel. Obama finished combat operations in Iraq and is windi ng down in Afghanistan. But ideologues would rather be complicit in re-electing the people who started the wars. Millions may die, but the political purity surv ives intact. On the Middle East, Obama has not shone, despite being a marginal i mprovement over recent predecessors. But let Benjamin Netanyahu bear oblique wit ness: his nightmare is a second-term Obama holding his feet to the fire. While t he President might not be inspiring, as was said about the United Nations, he mi ght not take us to heaven, but at least he will stop us descending to hell.