Mark Mardell gets a glimpse of President Obama again

You shout me forth 

In acclamations hyperbolical...

Here's a flavour of what you missed if you didn't listen to this week's The World This Weekend...

We got Mark Mardell saying this of the Obama intervention:

The UK part of his farewell tour wouldn't even count as a long weekend, but it might prove the most important 50 hours in the referendum campaign so far. Here was one of the most popular and powerful politicians in the whole world pulling no punches.

We then got to hear an interview between Huw Edwards and Barack Obama (with no interruptions, naturally).

Then came Mark Mardell again:

So will the President have the influence he wants on the British electorate? While critics deride him as a lame-duck he is still a bit of a rock star to some, as I found out when I went down to his town hall meeting in London with young people where his entrance was, indeed, of stadium status.

MM talked to some of those attending. 

The youthful participants in that meeting came out, some still slightly giddy having shaken the presidential hand. 

He then said:

Of course, what any President of the United States says is important but this one perhaps strikes a different chord. Former advisor to the Labour leadership Ayesha Hazarika says part of that appeal, unavoidably, is as America's first black president. 

And this was his (leading) question to Ayesha Hazarika:

When President Obama started talking about the referendum several politicians - Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage - mentioned his Kenyan ancestry. How did that strike you?

She said it it "smacked of an unnecessary, weird undertone" that was "pretty unpleasant". She tied it into the "ugly strain of dog-whistle politics" and "smearing" in the London mayoral election. 

Mark Mardell's commentary continued:

It was a week when we could have been forgiven for being rather inward-looking, staring backwards at the past - a very British history-soaked week of pageantry, the anniversary of Shakespeare's death, the Queen's 90th birthday - time to revel in nostalgia for both the Elizabethan ages. And the Associated Press notes the President's political intervention was "wrapped in appeals to British sentimentality". But the blunt, unsentimental job he set himself was to send a wrecking-ball into the Leave campaigners' case.  

He then talked to Professor Simon Hix from the LSE, who said "it was a serious blow to one of the main pillars of the Brexit campaign". "Many of who are Atlanticists", added Mark. Yes, said Prof. Hix, "and it's a blow to them". He said Obama is "telling it pretty straight" and that the "onus" is now with the Brexit camp to explain what would happen.

Finally came an interview with Dr. Liam Fox, a Leave campaigner. Mark introduced him by recalling a letter he'd signed before the visit asking the US president not to intervene in the UK's EU debate. "Well, obviously he ignored that advice," quipped Mark Mardell. 

The interview itself was handled fairly though. The return of this question, however, was inevitable (given what had gone before):

Finally, what do you think of some of those your side of the debate - Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage - referring to the President's half-Kenyan ancestry. What did you make of that?

Liam Fox said people should stick to the issues and not personalise things. 

Mark Mardell always gave the strong impression of having a huge 'soft spot' for Barack Obama while acting as the BBC's North America editor. He must have enjoyed getting to see the U.S. president again here, and his commentary seemed to me to be far too sympathetic towards him again here - and far too unsympathetic to the Brexiteers.

In other words, typical Mark Mardell.