Tweet-all to show for Obama’s blur of a visit
The long-awaited visit by former US President Barack Obama was the equivalent of reports of the infamous Fiordland moose.
Sightings were hard to come by and the photos were distant, grainy and hard to verify.
If not for a powhiri and meeting with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at Government House, some may have doubted he’d been here at all.
He was a blur in the peripheral vision of most of New Zealand. They could not see through the tinted windows of his car.
And he was the teal blur in the far distance on a golf course.
Outside the Sofitel at the Viaduct where he stayed a fellow guest reported spotting him in the gym. He had been swimming.
There was an occasional tweeted photograph by Air New Zealand by way of proving their investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars was worth every cent. Obama was all but a silhouette in one and in the others his back was turned to the camera as he took a swing at a golf ball. The final photo was of a signed golf glove.
That investment was worth it for former Prime Minister Sir John Key at least. Key spent two days playing golf with Obama and beat him twice. Key also relived the glory days of being in the media day in and day out for a week.
Key’s hope of reward in advance of the visit had been one solitary tweet.
Obama has 101 million followers on Twitter. “You put up one picture of a New Zealand golf course and him having a bit of fun, that’s got to have a fantastic value for us,” Key said.
Every effort was made to secure that one tweet. Key (and Air NZ, Westpac and MasterCard) shovelled New Zealand wine and New Zealand food down Obama’s mouth at every opportunity. He was shown New Zealand scenery aplenty.
But by the time his jet took off for Australia about 1.30pm yesterday there was no tweet. Not one in three days.
Key may now be ruing beating Obama at golf for there is a suspicion Obama is withholding that tweet as punishment for beating him — and letting everybody know.
As for Obama, he learned the hongi and took to it with such alacrity that the 20 Maori women leaders he met the next day were all greeted with a hongi and got a quick kiss in farewell.
We learned something of Obama too. We learned he enjoyed his stay in New Zealand, because other people told us he had. We learned he hoped to return because other people told us he did. We learned he understood the Kiwi sense of humour because other people told us he did.
From those who saw and heard the man in person, there were mixed reviews.
After his speaking event, he was variously described as dynamic, electrifying and half asleep. He over-delivered and underwhelmed. He was a drudge and a virtuoso.
The Maori women who met him yesterday morning had a more intimate audience and were uniformly positive, speaking of his mana and ability to put them at ease.
From his speech, we learned Obama values female leadership. He said if every country had a woman leader for at least two years it would ease conflict and child poverty.
We learned he was capable of sledging President Donald Trump through silence.
He told those at his speaking event that unlike some people he liked to take his time to think before speaking — followed by a long pause which made it quite clear he was thinking of someone who did not think before tweeting.
Key is not giving up on getting that tweet. He has followed Obama to Sydney for his appearances there and will follow him to Tokyo after that.
He was not invited to travel on Obama’s jet.