Brown smiles for the camera

Optimism, optimism, optimism.  That’s the line that Gordon Brown pushes in his interview with the Observer today.  He quotes Barack Obama; says he’s going to create jobs the Roosevelt way; claims that British goods are “the products the world will want to buy”; and seems dismissive of any black clouds on the horizon, as in this (quite worrying) passage:

“[Brown] mocks the Observer for being too pessimistic in our questions: ‘Can we afford this, can we afford that’! I’m more optimistic about our ability to be a successful economy creating large amounts of wealth in the future.'”

The politics of all this optimism is fairly clear.  As Matt suggests in his Sunday Telegraph column today, Brown’s current status as a “wartime” Prime Minister doesn’t guarantee him electoral success once the “war” is over.  The race is now on between Brown and Cameron to appear the best to lead us through the post-recessionary landscape.