A Political Obit for Blair

Ross McKibben helpes explain why the Brits are so tired of a prime minister most Americans still revere. Money quote:

Gordon Brown’s leadership will doubtless be calmer and more genuinely risk-free than Blair’s. Yet, even with all the luck in the world, it is unlikely that he can save the 'project'. The problems of New Labour are not, as many would argue, the result of its abandonment of Old Labour and its desirable values. New Labour has not abandoned Old Labour. On the contrary, New Labour has been forced out of political necessity to draw on the traditions of Old Labour, even though the present leadership believes in them less and less.

They are, in effect, trying to bolt together two almost antithetical types of politics: a hand-me-down (though often extreme) Thatcherism, on the one hand, and a broken-backed Labourism, on the other. Blair’s government has been so disappointing not because it is without achievement, but because its achievements are much less than they might have been and its mistakes much worse.

Sounds a lot like Bush, actually.