The joke about Obama and the lion
Two presidents are walking in Africa
In my column about Barack Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia, I wrote:
Mr Obama has two more years, perhaps even as little as 19 months, before the campaigning for the 2016 presidential election begins. He won’t be standing, but he will be doing all he can to make sure a Democrat wins it. And that will mean his record over the previous eight years will be scrutinised.
Mr Obama, then, is like the proverbial man chased by a lion
For those who don’t know the full joke, it runs like this:
A man and his friend are walking through a game reserve. Suddenly, they spot a lion ahead of them. The first guy drops his bag, forlornly shakes the hand of his friend, and takes off running.
His friend shouts after him: “Don’t be crazy! You can’t outrun a lion!”
“I don’t have to outrun the lion,” his friend shouts back, still running, “I only have to outrun you!”
Mr Obama, then, is like the proverbial man chased by a lion: he doesn’t have to outrun the lion, he just has to outrun the other guy. And the other guy is George W Bush, who led the US into one disastrous war and into another that has become America’s longest conflict. Mr Obama believes it will be enough to demonstrate how different he is to his predecessor.
The full column is here: In Saudi Arabia, Obama won’t escape the shadow of Bush
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