MS: I loved that line about this will be the moment when the rising oceans begin to subside (laughing)
HH: (laughing)MS: You know, you mentioned this windowless basement I’m in.
HH: Yes.
MS: There’s no link with the outside world except a clock, which is stuck at 8:00. and that’s government bureaucracy for you. You know, in British Columbia, it claims to be able to eradicate hate, but it can’t get someone in to restart the clock. And it will be the same with the Barack Obama presidency. He can make the oceans (laughing)…
HH: (laughing)
MS: …he can make the oceans subside, but will he be able to improve border security? I doubt it. And I think this kind of…you know, everybody gets the King Canute story wrong. King Canute didn’t think he had awesome powers. He took himself down to the seaside to show his advisors, his government, that he couldn’t make the waters recede. In this case, Obama has out-Canuted King Canute, because he thinks he can make the waters recede.
(…)
MS: Well, I think Obama is to the left, certainly if you look at the life experience, what he did before running for president, compared to McGovern. McGovern, in a sense, was a product of his moment, and he shifted with the moment, whereas I think Obama has spent his entire adult life immersed in a very narrow sliver of American society. And this is where the quasi-revolutionary rhetoric becomes disturbing. When he says, you know, this is the moment when we begin to remake America, well sorry. I speak as an immigrant. I happen to be in Canada at the moment, but believe me, I can’t wait to get south of the border the way I feel right now. But speaking as an immigrant, I’m pretty happy with America, and I don’t want to remake it from top to toe. I think it’s been a great success story for the last two hundred and thirty years, and I think this kind of, you know, the idea that not until Obama came along have we even thought about beginning to heal the sick. I mean, I think this is nutso talk, this messianic drivel. When he talks about his profound humility, profound humility’s just a phrase in the speech.
