Tracey Barnett: No flies on metrosexual President

Last week, I spent valuable work time of my uber valuable workday watching a video clip of the President of the United States swatting a fly during a television interview. Yes, a fly.

He did it in three seconds, like a heat- seeking missile. [View at www.traceybarnett.co.nz] We won't even mention that I clicked on a video of Obama shaking his preternaturally adorable puppy, "Bo" Obama's paw, ignoring a story of another suicide at Guantanamo the week before.

I had to restrain myself from writing yet another letter to the White House offering to carry the next presidential baby.

"What did you do today, Lemon Puff?"

"I dissected critical analysis of the American political pulse. Don't bother me, my head is full."

"Oh, so you saw the fly footage today too, eh?"

The truth is, Obama's approval ratings are still strong because half of America would like to date him. Straight guys admit the same thing, when waterboarded properly.

If recent approval numbers have dipped, it's because red-blooded American men are just bitter. The guy flies the woman he sleeps with to Paris and New York for "date night". You'd score too, if you had his plane.

Welcome to the first Metrosexual presidency. It's like someone rolled up Tom Hanks, Nelson Mandela, Smokey Robinson, and your favourite year six teacher into a good suit and let him loose in an episode of West Wing.

"What do you think of him now?" friends ask, after Democrats from his own Party voted down funding to close Guantanamo because Congress wanted more answers he didn't have. Bipartisanship was so 100 days ago. These days his own guys are nipping at his ankles.

But even those who ploughed into election romance full throttle know the reality of political marriage looks more like seeing Brad Pitt trim his nose hairs six months in.

No more 'The fierce urgency of now, Baby'. It's more like 'Yes we can - once you bring us a health care plan that's going to fly'.

Despite the mere existence of Flavour of Love episodes pointing to the contrary, Americans aren't stupid. We separate the man from the president.

These days the political animal Obama is either a centrist sellout or a constrained saint, depending on who's talking.

The new cliché is that he's a pragmatist, not an ideologue. Either that, or he wears moderation like a smelly shirt.

That's tough to stomach when the "Change We Can Believe in" man sometimes chooses to tread water in order to pick his battles.

Just ask gay rights supporters. Obama is channelling Bill Clinton in reverse, trying to learn from Clinton-era mistakes and running too far in the other direction.

Clinton ended up with the ridiculous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy when he innocently signalled gays should be allowed in the military. It swamped his bigger, early-days priorities.

That may account for why Obama has frustratingly pushed gay issues to the back burner so far, until he finally coughed up some federal benefits to gay couples last week. "Don't Ask" still stands, strangely out of step, even as individual states are beginning to endorse gay marriage without his help.

Similarly, the President is pushing health-care reform now because he knows it won't have a fly's chance in a byelection year, as happened to Bill Clinton.

He's letting Congress kick his policy around to give Senators a sense of ownership to help push it through, unlike First Lady Hillary's dictates that got up Congress' nose 15 years ago. Others argue reform will sink without a stronger hand from the White House.

It's still too early to know if this penchant for strategic patience will ultimately work in Obama's favour.

If nothing else, his pragmatism has pissed off the left and right in equal measure, leaving an intact mainstream base still pulling him forward. That can look like one step forward, one step back.

Obama released the terror memos, but withheld gruesome photos. He talks transparency, but wiretapping and the new, even more frightening "sovereign immunity" [where citizens have no right to dispute their surveillance unless the Government discloses it] still fester.

Next week, US troops pull out of Iraqi cities and Obama's pretty peace policy will hit reality hard.

It will get tougher to offer pragmatism in a new relationship that begs for lots of passion. But this is a man who goes to Cairo and actually talks about relationships.

Everybody loves that stuff. He is so good at throwing us a bone just when we get hungrier.

First pooch, Bo Obama, now has his own official White House portrait on a baseball card, thus making the world a better place. So Mr President, rethink Afghanistan, swat back executive secrecy like you totalled that fly, and we can still call this puppy love.

www.traceybarnett.co.nz