He said that the British approach of cautious detailed project management had its strengths, and that "Europe could learn a lot from our processes and good habits".
Yet, there are many reasons to be cautious in projecting tomorrow's outcome.
But in Britain, as in many other countries, by-elections can produce results that prove poor predictors of the voting patterns in general elections, and pundits here were cautious in projecting what Thursday's result might portend for the next general election, which must be held by May 2010.
Meagre turnout has been the big problem in the last two midterm elections and, though Obama could still motivate the party faithful in 2012, the increasingly cautious message projected by most of its candidates since has failed to inspire the same brand of hope.
Like Rand Paul, he would be very cautious about projecting American power around the world.
Tiny dictaphones are held out, but the questions are tame, the answers jolly but cautious - new projects, future plans, that sort of thing.
Still, at a time when investors are looking for a return and perhaps are more cautious about financing projects, Chicago may be more attractive.
Caldecott said the findings meant investors should be very cautious about supporting projects associated with thermal coalmines in Australia, such as Adani's Carmichael mega-mine and the Shenhua Watermark mine.
The good news – and the bad – is that, for all today's chatter and George Osborne's curiously tactless observation that the savings of "hard-working Chinese" can be deployed on UK infrastructure projects, cautious governments will take their time.
In the United States, the federal Energy Information Administration, a cautious prognosticator, is projecting explosive growth in domestic oil production in the next three years alone, with production expanding from a current 6.83 million barrels a day to 7.52 million barrels a day in 2016 — the highest rate achieved in nearly three decades.
