Is the President just a big mummy’s boy?

WHY does President Obama seem too willing to compromise with virulently unpleasant political opponents? The UCLA Professor Emerita of Information Studies, Marcia Bates, comes up with an explanation: ‘This son of a single mother learned a woman’s way of negotiating — a fundamentally co-operative approach dependent on good faith, without posturing or making strict demands. ‘Unfortunately, when women offer to give something up, men take it as a sign of weakness and demand still more. This is where Obama finds himself time and again. The real mystery is why such an astute man fails to understand that his preferred technique does not work.’ Some of us may have experienced examples of women’s negotiating technique which do not accord with those of Professor Bates. Be that as it may, she raises an interesting talking-point. BILLIONAIRE investor Warren Buffett has just spent $500 million buying Oriental Trading, an ailing, U.S. direct retailer of ‘party supplies’. He is also said to be ‘salivating’ over the prospect of new deals. I bring this to the attention of the Middleton family, whose Party Pieces company is said to be highly profitable. The status of their daughter, Kate, as future Queen has done no harm to Party Pieces. But the company is sometimes accused of over-zealous marketing of cheap party gee-gaws and trinkets. The Middletons are criticised when they link their products to big events partly because of their royal connections. Recently, the Bond movie people were said to be annoyed by Party Pieces selling its merchandise on the back of the new film, Skyfall. Might this be the moment to put out feelers to salivating Buffett?