Obama's messages

On Monday night, I saw Barack Obama speak. On my return to the UK, I intend to write more about that and my other US electoral experiences.

Standing there in a field along with approximately 100,000 people, I saw someone in the tradition of FDR, Martin Luther King and JFK.

But watching him make his acceptance speech, I was struck by his reference to, and rhetorical echoes, of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was a Republican. He led a party that was liberal and modern. He was also a great orator.

Lincoln famously said that "a House divided against itself cannot stand". America has appeared divided for some time. A key part of the Republican party's strategy, that is the party that was once led by Lincoln, has been to highlight the differences in America, to frame its opponents as un, non or less American.

When Obama talks about America he stresses its union not its division. If he can change that perception of Americans, that whatever their differences, they are a union, he may be able to reawaken the country's sense of purpose.

But there is something else worth noting. Obama appeared to be positioning the Democratic party as the true inheritor of the Lincoln political tradition. This could mean that the remodelling of his party, that began with Bill Clinton, will move the Democrats towards a political space more associated with British liberalism than social democracy.