Is it personal? Does the US president just dislike the British prime minister? Do Barack Obama and Gordon Brown need (special) relationship counseling?
I ask because Barack Obama’s apparent reluctance to attend the Copenhagen summit on climate change in December is something of a personal blow to Gordon Brown.
Obama continues to spit in Brown’s face
The PM has made very clear that he wants the President to attend. Indeed, last week he was practically pleading.
Mr Brown’s spokesman this morning is keeping up appearances: “He was and is keen for other leaders to be there.” But Downing Street is clearly resigned to disappointment.
This isn’t the first time, either. Last month’s snub is still a very sore subject in No 10.
Meanwhile, we know that the White House is busily flirting with the Tories. William Hague got the full welcome from Hillary Clinton last week, and we understand that talks are already underway about a David Cameron trip to the White House.
Read More: By James Kirkup, Daily Telegraph
Tags: Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Special Relationship, United KingdomBritish officials made five attempts to secure official talks with the US President and even agreed to a policy change in an attempt to land a joint appearance between the two leaders, said diplomatic sources.
But the White House rebuffed the offers and Mr Brown, who had hoped to increase his popularity by appearing on his own with Mr Obama, had to settle instead for a snatched conversation with the President in a New York kitchen.
Gaddafi delivers 100 minute speech at UN The setbacks led to fears that relations between Downing Street and the White House were at their lowest point since John Major’s frosty dealings with Bill Clinton.
It was disclosed earlier this week that Mr Brown would not hold bilateral talks with Mr Obama, despite the President hosting individual meetings with the leaders of Japan, China and Russia. Downing Street claimed that this was not unusual.
However, a British diplomat told The Daily Telegraph that the White House’s refusal to meet Mr Brown had been a serious embarrassment for the Prime Minister.
Read More: By Andrew Porter, London Telegraph
Tags: Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Special Relationship“He who wishes to exert a useful influence must be careful to insult nothing.” If Goethe was right, I guess we can give up on President Obama exerting a useful influence. By now he’s insulted just about everything and everyone. I list some of his insults below, in alphabetical order by insultee. Let the healing begin.
Afghanistan/Karzai: “… senior members of Obama’s national security team say Karzai has not done enough to address the grave challenges facing his nation. They deem him to be a mercurial and vacillating chieftain… Obama intends to maintain an arm’s-length relationship with Karzai… The administration will also seek to bypass Karzai… The administration rebuffed Karzai’s request for a bilateral visit to Washington this spring… Karzai’s meeting with Obama today is scheduled for 20 minutes…”
Obama has insulted Gordon Brown, the Queen and just about everyone else
The people of Afghanistan may have just re-elected this “mercurial and vacillating chieftain.”
Brazil: Obama re-scheduled a meeting with the President of Brazil, the first Latin American leader to visit with the new US President, so he could make St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. “Then, the White House announcement misspelled his name as ‘Luis Ignacio’ and put ‘Lula’ – a nickname that decades ago became a legal part of the Brazilian leader’s name – in quotes.”
Britain: Barack Obama’s gift to Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was a box set of 25 DVDs, all in a format which will not work in the UK. (Brown’s gift to Obama was a pen holder crafted from the timbers of the 19th century British warship HMS President, an anti-slaver whose sister ship provided the wood for the Oval Office’s desk.)
Read More: By Randall Hoven, American Thinker
Tags: Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Insults, The QueenBy Amol Rajan and Nick Clark, The Independent UK
Friendly then, now Brits receive the cold shoulder
Last week, it was all smiles and handshakes as Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama put on a show of unity in Washington.
But yesterday, Sir Gus O’Donnell, Britain’s most senior civil servant, exposed transatlantic tension when he protested that Downing Street was finding it “unbelievably difficult” to plan for next month’s G20 summit in London because of problems tracking down senior figures in the US administration. “There is nobody there. You cannot believe how difficult it is,” the Cabinet Secretary told a civil service conference in Gateshead.
Tags: Barack Obama, British Relations, Gordon Brown, White HouseJack Kelly,Real Clear politics
Obama bowls as well as he deals with foreign relations
Americans anxiously watching their 401ks melt away may not have noticed the Obama administration is off to a rocky start in foreign policy, too.
We were told often during the campaign that Mr. Obama would repair relationships with foreign governments allegedly damaged by the “cowboy”diplomacy of George W. Bush. But in his first weeks in office, President Obama gratuitously has offended allies, and has made clumsy overtures — contemptuously rebuffed — to adversaries.
Most puzzling has been the back of the hand treatment the president has given to our closest ally.
Most in Britain were ecstatic when Mr. Obama was elected. None more so than Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who hoped proximity to The One would boost his own flagging standing in the polls back home. It didn’t work out that way.
Tags: Barack Obama, Foreign Relations, Gordon Brown, United KingdomBy Tim Shipman, The Telegraph
Obama too tired to honor our special relationship
Barack Obama’s offhand approach to Gordon Brown’s Washington visit last week came about because the president was facing exhaustion over America’s economic crisis and is unable to focus on foreign affairs, the Sunday Telegraph has been told.
Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been “overwhelmed” by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest.
British officials, meanwhile, admit that the White House and US State Department staff were utterly bemused by complaints that the Prime Minister should have been granted full-blown press conference and a formal dinner, as has been customary. They concede that Obama aides seemed unfamiliar with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister.
Tags: Barack Obama, British Relations, Gordon Brown
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