A Scotch is fetched for him as he is wheeled into the
corner of the bar. "I was like everyone else when Obama
was elected - optimistic. Everything we had been saying
about racial integration was vindicated," he says, "but
he's incompetent. He will be defeated for re-election.
It's a pity because he's the first intellectual president
we've had in many years, but he can't hack it. He's not
up to it. He's overwhelmed. And who wouldn't be? The
United States is a madhouse. The country should be put
away - and we're being told to go away. Nothing makes any
sense." The President "wants to be liked by everybody,
and he thought all he had to do was talk reason. But
remember - the Republican Party is not a political party.
It's a mindset, like Hitler Youth. It's full of hatred.
You're not going to get them aboard. Don't even try. The
only way to handle them is to terrify them. He's too
delicate for that."

When he compares Obama to his old friend Jack Kennedy, he
shakes his head. "He's twice the intellectual that Jack
was, but Jack knew the great world. Remember he spent a
long time in the navy, losing ships. This kid [Obama] has
never heard a gun fired in anger. He's absolutely bowled
over by generals, who tell him lies and he believes them.
He hasn't done anything. If you were faced with great
problems in chemistry - to find the perfect gas, to gas a
population - you won't know for a long time whether it
works. You have to go by what people tell you. He's like
that. He's not ready for prime time and he's getting a
lot of prime time on his plate at once."

Is there any hope? "Every sign I see is doom. But then
people say" - he adopts a whiny, nasal voice - "'Oh Mr
Vidal, you're so negative, can't you say something nice
about America? It's a wonderful country, everybody wants
to live here.' Oh yes? When was the last time you saw a
Norwegian with a green card who wanted to come here
because of the health service? I'll pay you if you can
find one."

But there is, he says with sudden perkiness, some "good
news. Afghanistan will be terminal for the American
empire, yes. Which is a happy way of looking at it. We'll
be out of the empire game, rapidly. But it's too late for
the country and the constitution." He raises his drink,
and smiles ironically. "To a better republic," he says,
and drinks in one long gulp.

His voice strengthens. "One thing I have hated
all my life are LIARS [he says that with
bristling anger] and I live in a nation of
them. It was not always the case. I don't
demand honour, that can be lies too. I don't
say there was a golden age, but there was an
age of general intelligence. We had a watchdog,
the media." The media is too supine? "Would
that it was. They're busy preparing us for an
Iranian war." He retains some optimism about
Obama "because he doesn't lie. We know the fool
from Arizona [as he calls John McCain] is a
liar. We never got the real story of how McCain
crashed his plane [in 1967 near Hanoi, North
Vietnam] and was held captive."

Vidal originally became pro-Obama because he
grew up in "a black city" (meaning Washington),
as well as being impressed by Obama's
intelligence. "But he believes the generals.
Even Bush knew the way to win a general was to
give him another star. Obama believes the
Republican Party is a party when in fact it's a
mindset, like Hitler Youth, based on hatred -
religious hatred, racial hatred. When you
foreigners hear the word - conservative' you
think of kindly old men hunting foxes. They're
not, they're fascists."

Another notable Obama mis-step has been on
healthcare reform. "He f***ed it up. I don't
know how because the country wanted it. We'll
never see it happen." As for his wider vision:
"Maybe he doesn't have one, not to imply he is
a fraud. He loves quoting Lincoln and there's a
great Lincoln quote from a letter he wrote to
one of his generals in the South after the
Civil War. - I am President of the United
States. I have full overall power and never
forget it, because I will exercise it'. That's
what Obama needs - a bit of Lincoln's chill."
Has he met Obama? "No," he says quietly, "I've
had my time with presidents." Vidal raises his
fingers to signify a gun and mutters: "Bang
bang." He is referring to the possibility of
Obama being assassinated. "Just a mysterious
lone gunman lurking in the shadows of the
capital," he says in a wry, dreamy way.

Vidal now believes, as he did originally,
Clinton would be the better president. "Hillary
knows more about the world and what to do with
the generals. History has proven when the girls
get involved, they're good at it. Elizabeth I
knew Raleigh would be a good man to give a ship
to."The Republicans will win the next election,
Vidal believes; though for him there is little
difference between the parties. "Remember the
coup d'etat of 2000 when the Supreme Court
fixed the selection, not election, of the
stupidest man in the country, Mr Bush."