Der Chef der Liberaldemokraten, Nick Clegg, ist der neue Superstar der britischen Politik. Dabei wäre noch vor kurzem niemand auf die Idee gekommen, dass dieser jungenhafte Mr Nice Guy jemals in einem Atemzug mit Churchill und Obama genannt würde. Seine überzeugenden Auftritte in den Fernsehduellen mit Premierminister Brown und Tory-Herausforderer Cameron haben das geändert. Aber das macht aus Nick Clegg immer noch keinen Messias:

Nick Clegg isn’t the Messiah

My first, and so far only, personal experience with Nick Clegg, the unlikely new superstar of British politics, happened back in May 2008. At the time, I was working for Policy Exchange, a think tank that prided itself on being the intellectual driving force behind David Cameron’s modernised Conservative Party.

On this spring day in 2008, the Liberal Democrat leader gave a key speech on his party’s new taxation policy to Policy Exchange. From this event, I remember that the then 41-year old Clegg looked just as boyish as he does on TV. He nervously read his speech from a carefully drafted manuscript, but the ensuing Q&A session revealed that he had not written it himself, or at least Clegg did not seem to know too many details of the policies he had just announced.

To the crowd of the usual two or three dozen Westminster journalists it hardly mattered. They probably had more interest in Clegg’s sex life than in his tax plans anyway (he had just admitted sexual relationships with ‘no more than 30’ women). It was a time when a Lib Dem leader’s personal affairs were infinitely more interesting than his policies because one thing was clear: the Lib Dems would never be in government.

Fast forward two years, and Clegg’s stunning performances in the first televised British election debates have excited the media and the electorate alike. Over the past two weeks, Clegg has been compared to both Churchill and Obama for his charisma and his ability to connect with people.

Now that everybody seems to see the Messiah in Clegg, I am asking myself what we overlooked in May 2008. Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us and opened the secrets of Lib Dem policy to us?

With apologies to Monty Python’s Life of Brian – Clegg is not the Messiah he’s just a very likeable boy.

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