His performance at the first press conference in London with Gordon Brown featured moments in which he sparkled - his riff on loving the Queen was a high-point. But most of the serious answers that I listened to were interminable, windy and not very impressive. At points there were pauses so long that it appeared he had simply lost his train of thought.
The writer, Iain Martin, is even less impressed with Obama's speech in Prague:
Today, we were treated to another set-piece Obama speech, and my didn't he go on a bit? The crowd in Prague was huge, and initially wildly enthusiastic, but what he served up was not any more impressive than his damp squib in Berlin last year. Is there a computer which churns this stuff out for him?
Martin also seems to think that within a year Obama will be labeled a wind-bag.
Obviously these writers didn't pay enough attention to Obama during our elections, where everyone noted those "pauses" were generally when he didn't have a teleprompter leading his every word.
The Guardian's John Crace also makes fun of those "pauses", and TownHall has the video of Obama having a bit of a problem with his teleprompter on this trek through Europe.
The honeymoon is definitely ending.
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