Desperately seeking substance - from Obama

But a policy that relies for success on stopping the world from turning is not going to work. Obama will find - as Jimmy Carter did to his cost - that appeasing your enemies doesn't calm them down. It emboldens them to make life even tougher for you.

So far, Obama has got away with it. Until he's hit with something like a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he will slide by, and will be able to focus on his domestic spending. And does he love to spend.

Obama likes to talk about this being an "age of responsibility". Evidently, being responsible means massively expanding the government, taxing money away from successes to give to failures like General Motors and piling the bills on the young. He talks of responsibility, but he spends like Gordon Brown.

It's a sign of their common sense that none of this is terribly popular with the American people. Obama's personal approval rankings are high, but on taxes, immigration, national security, and old age pensions, Republicans are in the lead. Even on the economy, the parties are neck and neck.

After 100 days in office, with the world at his feet, Obama has deliberately put his fate in the hands of events and states he cannot control. Weirdly, this skilful politician, with an enormous reservoir of support, and full control of Congress, is trusting to luck to get by. And so far, he has been lucky. But it has only been 100 days.