The O-factor kicked into overdrive yesterday. Like, overdrive. Everywhere you looked there was hype, bordering on hyperventilation.Despite months of preparation around Parliament House, people were still busily clearing weeds, de-scuffing walls and sweeping the floor.Even after Barack Obama had officially touched down at Fairbairn, there was a man giving the front doors of Parliament House another once over.You can just imagine the scandal. POTUS cancels two trips, finally manages to squeeze one in, but then only makes it as far as the public entrance because there are finger prints on the doors!But the hypervents didn’t stop there. You could hear it too. Of course we’ve been able to hear the helicopters overhead for days. But now that Obama has arrived with his convoy of uber-confidence, you can hear him on the ground too.As Obama was ceremonially welcomed in the Parliament House forecourt yesterday afternoon, you could barely make out the 21-gun salute over the omnipresent hum of his customised ‘‘Beast’’ Cadillac.Obama’s driver was parked off to the side, looking shifty-eyed at everyone, with another black van-load of ‘‘people’’ stopped nearby. If the choppers are the ‘‘Sound of Freedom’’, these guys were the sound of constant surveillance.Inside Parliament House, things were no more serene. The joint Obama-Gillard press conference was in the Main Committee Room, so there would be enough space for journalists from two continents.Even so, it was wall-to-wall cameras, reporters and advisers. Oh yeah, there were lots of advisers. There must have been an official for every minute of announcement.Which is funny, because in theory, it was a relatively straightforward (some would even say, highly controlled) affair. Both leaders got a pre-prepared statement and each country only got two questions each.And yet, there was edginess all around. A Big Brother voice (you could hear him but you couldn’t see him) announced proceedings were about to start – as if it wouldn’t be completely obvious when the President had arrived.The poor guy can’t even blink without a million camera clicks going off in his face. If he goes as far as waving his hand, the cameras get even more frenetic. Whether for historical record or front-page purposes, it’s mighty loud.Even Julia Gillard – normally a steady performer – was a little wobbly in her delivery. Perhaps the microphone was playing up, but the Prime Ministerial voice shook a little as she announced the ramped up US military presence Down Under.And yet, Obama himself seemed relaxed in the extreme. The alleged rhetorical superstar spoke slowly and softly – at the sort of volume where you have to concentrate a little to hear. At times it seemed that if he was any more relaxed, he might fall over.No one’s saying it was an anti-climax – the US alliance is too important for that. But the President sure cuts a bizarrely calm figure in a sea of hype. I guess when you have swarms of staff, enough vehicles to fill a car yard and the sort of security they make movies about, you can afford to let other people do the freaking out for you.The Canberra Times