Just today, the wires are hot with the news that the junior Senator from Illinois, grassroots champion and presidential candidate has made a speech where he said he would speak to the ‘President of Canada.' OK, you might say, that was a gaffe, the sort of thing that could happen to anyone. We can, and must forgive it of one of America's brightest talents ever, a graduate of both Columbia and Harvard and a law professor to boot. This certainly is not a bleached George W Bush.

But it is not Obama's first mistake, and up and down the USA there are reports that he is not the article that was promised. I recently read a newspaper report about an Obama gathering in Iowa. The crowd had come in their thousands to see this wonder kid they had heard of from the newspapers, what they called the reincarnation of JFK. What they got instead was a wooden poster , his arms hanging by his side, his voice a constant monotone, his answers banal and unoriginal, most of them not useful.

But we know a different Obama, we know the Obama of the 2004 Presidential Race, rousing America with the hope of a brighter tomorrow. Giving the world hope that America would be returning to the world stage with a renewed sense of justice, an eschewal of the old path of violent self-righteousness. Where then is that Obama?

Many analysts will point at his naivety, and the very short stint he has had in national politics (what was once his greatest asset) as his greatest curse. He is as he has often boasted not of Washington. As attractive as that has made him to the grassroots, that also means that Obama is unlikely to be cut out for the aggression, for the nuanced politics of the national stage, and the global limelight. The punishing schedule that others like Senators Clinton and Edwards are practiced veterans of has dulled the shine that once made the fresh young Obama stand out. The innocence that set him apart from the compromised Clinton is now underlined by a sense of inexperience, a sense of good intentions in a knight with a sword too heavy for him to lift. His good-nature, his professorial demeanor mean that he is not inured against the sort of attacks as were used against him recently in the Nuclear Question at the party presidential debates.

a visibly worn Senator

You get the feeling that hidden beneath that wiry frame is two Obamas, the passionate young man on a mission, and the older Obama- one who is coming to terms with the rules of the game. The younger Obama had these ideas he thought could change the world, he was wildly pro-Palestinian, he did not believe in military force, he believed in an America that was going to use its power to bring the world to peace around common accepted ideals of civilization. The new Obama is less so, amazingly he of all the candidates speaks most repeatedly about increasing the size of the American army. Even more stupendously, after the very clearly obvious fiasco with the invasion of Iraq, he says he would send American troops into Pakistan, a much larger and more difficult country to control. The new Obama is pro-Israel, even to the point of attending meetings of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (an American pro Israel lobby group).The old Obama realized the plight of the beleaguered Palestinian peoples, attended rallies and protests in defense of their right to freedom and a future.

This is I believe the reason for the Senator's loss of passion, and all his gaffes. He genuinely does not believe what he speaks about now. He is playing a part, like an unconvinced actor. He has become a part of the system, equipped with a campaign team of Beltway insiders and veterans. He is running to win, making the friends it takes, shaking the hands that make kings and kissing the feet that smooth the way. Barack Obama is selling out.

He is not completely lost to the other side though. His other policies, especially on free trade, on poor Americans and on civilizing America's Health Care system still show a clear liberal streak, they betray a heart that is in the right place. He can go back to that place. If on the other hand his eye is set on the prize, he can take heart.

Hillary Clinton was once hated by the powers that be. Back in that day her heart wept for America's downtrodden, she genuinely cared that in the richest country in the world, people were dying because they could not afford healthcare. She took on big business; she took on the insurance companies and the Health Management Organisations. They gave her a few scars, showed her her place. Now they love her. The Senator from Alego can take a hint.