ere el guapo..... Cameron's not a happy bunny then?

[Oscar Namechange]

Labour's Barack Obama bump will bruise the Tories - mirror.co.uk

Barack Obama and Gordon Brown's shared approach to economics and politics is why those betting the ranch on a Tory victory may be left homeless.

The President and the Prime Minister are drawing a dividing line between progressives, who believe in the positive power of Government, and those forces of Conservatism who'd leave you on your tod.

Yesterday's cosy chat at the White House and today's Washington red carpet treatment for the PM, including a speech to both houses of Congress, is the dawn of a new era in Anglo-American politics.

Saving jobs and rejuvenating economies promises to be of mutual benefit after the destructive military relationship of Blair-Bush.

Obama flies to London early next month for an international summit and Brown hopes that some of the President's stardust will rub off.

But of greater importance would be a new deal to cajole and coerce banks into lending, increasing public spending to inject life into economies dying on their feet.

Tories who wrongly predicted Brown wouldn't be the first European leader into the Oval Office switched track to talk of snubs and claim the trip's a waste of aviation fuel.

Yet that Conservative carping gives away how the Blues fear a warm special relationship between Brown and the planet's most popular politician. For the truth is that the Tories are isolated on the international scene - and advocating cuts that would make a bad recession worse.

Even European right wingers - such as Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Nicolas Sarkozy - have more in common with the Labour leadership than they do with the Conservative Party.





We can now see the pieces of Brown's jigsaw to produce a coherent response to a crisis. If the Tories were home and dry, they would be up by 25 or 30 points, instead of up a measly one point to 44 in the latest poll.

This week's US jaunt will be followed by the warm glow of Obamamania which will sweep across Britain on April 2.

Having set out the international stall for a reflationary Budget, on April 22 Chancellor Alistair Darling will announce a two-year recovery programme.

The Bank of England printing extra money sounds like a Monopoly player nicking a £500 bill and a couple of £100s when the banker goes to the toilet.

But plummeting inflation makes oiling the financial machine a no-brainer when the inflationary dragon of the 1970s, 80s and 90s no longer breathes fire.

Meanwhile, Labour's fairweather friends clamber aboard the Tory bandwagon.

Change is a seductive song and Labour's position may be electorally bankrupt, with bankers doing to Brown in 2010 what strikers did to Jim Callaghan in 1979.

But don't believe anyone who says Brown that doesn't have a plan.

He has.

The big question is whether it'll work.