I just watched President Obama’s contribution to the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the destruction of the Berlin Wall. There were a number of things remarkable about it.

He never used the C word  – I guess he didn’t want to offend Comrade Putin. Neither did he mention Lech Walesa, Pope John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher or, heaven forbid, Ronald Reagan.

His language was a masterpiece of eloquent evasion. He talked about the countries of the Eastern bloc that ‘got trapped behind the Iron Curtain’. Tsk. Careless of them. He talked about ‘the rebuke to Tyranny’. Why do I have a horrible feeling that someone out there, who heard that speech, is now planning to name their next child ‘Tyranny’?

‘Tyranny! I’m going to count to ten!’ 

But in the course of his two and a half minute video he did manage to pull off as fine a piece of solipsism as I’ve ever witnessed: he reminded us that the United States now has as its Commander in Chief a man of African descent. 

Hey, Mister President, enough about them. Tell us about yourself, why don’t you?