“IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE”

But most of all, Barack Obama's presidency marks the ascendancy of a new generation: not his own, but the teenagers and twentysomethings who came out in droves to vote, confounding their sceptical elders and embracing "Yes We Can" as their mantra, their battle cry.They understand too well that they are entering a world of austerity, a world in which they might not be better off than their parents, a world in which individual and collective responsibility will not be contradictory, but complementary. Like them, Obama is sober. He is preparing them for "Yes We Can" to turn to "No, We Can't"; he is telling them that the euphoria, the hoopla, the hype, and maybe even the hope will fade all too soon. He is telling them that theirs will be a generation that will be wise before its time.

The Telegraph
Jan 20 2009