Extract from

The New Road to Serfdom

By Daniel Hannan

Chapter 5 - “Don’t Copy Europe”

American journalists are forever trying to get me to be disobliging about President Obama. It’s not something I want to do, for several reasons.

First, etiquette. The chap is your head of state, the supreme representative and exemplar of a great nation. There’s a decorum about these things.

Second, diplomacy. Politicians shouldn’t be critical of foreign leaders without very good reason.

Third, democracy. Barack Obama won a handsome electoral mandate, and many good, generous patriotic Americans voted for him.

Fourth, decency. He seems a likeable fellow, with a wonderful family to whom he is plainly devoted.

Fifth, benefit of the doubt. I don’t believe that any US president would deliberately set out to impoverish his country, or to undermine its essential freedoms. If these outcomes should ensure, they are likely to be the unintended consequences of well-intentioned reforms.

The sixth consideration, however, towers over the first five. No friend of the United States wants an American president to fail. The security and prosperity of the world are underpinned by the strength of the United States.

C2010 Daniel Hannan