Today must be "Rube Sunday."
Unlike George W Bush and Bill Clinton, Obama has made little effort to strike up friendships with European leaders.
"Miss me yet?"
At the G20 summit in Pittsburgh last year he was pictured walking out with the leaders of China and India, his administration's evident priorities, along with Russia, at the expense of America's traditional allies.
Does this comment imply that Russia is a "non-traditional" ally of the US?
When the Washington Post columnist Jackson Diehl asked White House officials to name a foreign leader with whom Obama had forged a personal relationship, there was "a lot of hemming and hawing", he said. To his astonishment, no one mentioned Gordon Brown. Instead the name proffered was Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president.
Long way from "Tear down this wall!", ain't it?
The British feel particularly miffed. Within days of becoming president, Obama removed the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office. This, followed by Obama's odd choice of gift to Brown -- a box of DVDs including Psycho and Toy Story -- prompted speculation of something deeper. In his memoir, Obama writes of how his grandfather was beaten by British troops in colonial Kenya.
Here's the plan: You guys elect the next Margaret Thatcher and we'll elect the next Ronald Reagan. And then house will be cleaned.
A senior official from No 10, who was in Washington in December for Obama's big speech on Afghanistan, was horrified that the president did not once mention Britain in the 45-minute address despite the presence there of 10,000 British troops.
That's 'cause military guys are icky in BO's America.
| And British military guys are to him unspeakable. Hence the lack of mention. Imagine if his mother's family had been Catholics from Northern Ireland, how the double grudge would have impelled him, and be grateful for small favours. |
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