Obama and Brown meet in White House but no press questions scheduled

[American Horse]

Obama and Britain’s Brown meet at the White House, with Brown calling for an "International New Deal" and Obama doesn’t schedule an after meeting press conference, claiming “snow" day.

But Brown is disappointed, and says (paraphrased) ‘Come on – why not? Surely we can find a room inside to do this if we can’t have it outside in the Rose Garden’ which is the traditional presser location after these heads of state meetings.


The paraphrased words are tose of a British reporter on FNC who also called it a "snub".

 

[WillowTree]

reckon Brown is gonna take that ugly Churchill thing obamalama kicked to the curb home with him???

 

[American Horse]

reckon Brown is gonna take that ugly Churchill thing obamalama kicked to the curb home with him???

Hopefully Brown will be more sensitive than Obama has proven to be recently. The snafu with the bust, followed up by an important (at least seen by Brown) international initiative from their side, if not rectified, might be seen by the British public as an intended slight and yet the falling of another shoe.

After a long delay there ended up being a brief presser. I think that Obama didn't want to talk about, or be put on the spot on this issue of the International New Deal. If you don't know what you want to say, and haven't done much policy work on an issue, say nothing, and the best way to do that is to make no public comments. Obama got lucky and few direct questions were asked on that, but why hadn't more thought been put into this since the Administration knew what was coming?

 

[KittenKoder]

Obama and Britain’s Brown meet at the White House, with Brown calling for an "International New Deal" and Obama doesn’t schedule an after meeting press conference, claiming “snow" day.

But Brown is disappointed, and says (paraphrased) ‘Come on – why not? Surely we can find a room inside to do this if we can’t have it outside in the Rose Garden’ which is the traditional presser location after these heads of state meetings.


The paraphrased words are tose of a British reporter on FNC who also called it a "snub".

Okay ... this is one of the allowed 7 (based on how many times Jr. did the same thing) per term.

 

[PoliticalChic]

reckon Brown is gonna take that ugly Churchill thing obamalama kicked to the curb home with him???

Hopefully Brown will be more sensitive than Obama has proven to be recently. The snafu with the bust, followed up by an important (at least seen by Brown) international initiative from their side, if not rectified, might be seen by the British public as an intended slight and yet the falling of another shoe.

After a long delay there ended up being a brief presser. I think that Obama didn't want to talk about, or be put on the spot on this issue of the International New Deal. If you don't know what you want to say, and haven't done much policy work on an issue, say nothing, and the best way to do that is to make no public comments. Obama got lucky and few direct questions were asked on that, but why hadn't more thought been put into this since the Administration knew what was coming?

I don't believe that the Churchill-bust fiasco was a case of insensitivity. What we are witnessing is a shift in US-Obama policy from a 200 year associaton with the UK. Why did Obama make his only overseas campaign speech in Germany?
It has become increasingly evident that Germany wields by far the most influence over European policy and effectively dictates EU foreign policy.
Let's see the press coverage on this meeting.

 

[American Horse]

Obama and Britain’s Brown meet at the White House, with Brown calling for an "International New Deal" and Obama doesn’t schedule an after meeting press conference, claiming “snow" day.

But Brown is disappointed, and says (paraphrased) ‘Come on – why not? Surely we can find a room inside to do this if we can’t have it outside in the Rose Garden’ which is the traditional presser location after these heads of state meetings.


The paraphrased words are tose of a British reporter on FNC who also called it a "snub".

Okay ... this is one of the allowed 7 (based on how many times Jr. did the same thing) per term.

Yes, but we can't justify bad behavior with other bad behavior. As P.C. said this may have a larger meaning than just insensitivity. I don't think Brown's big plan is welcome; it's probably something some version of which the President would rather have been the author of rather than just signing onto; being a leader rather than perceived as a follower.

 

[AllieBaba]

Hey, Booboo...is this indicative of how Obama is making the world love us now????

What a piece of work.

 

[WhiteLion]

reckon Brown is gonna take that ugly Churchill thing obamalama kicked to the curb home with him???

Obama Turns a Cold Shoulder to Britain

President Barack Obama hosted his first foreign leader when he met in early March with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown — and it was a “diplomatic disaster.”

That’s the view of historian Arthur Herman, whose latest book is “Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age.”

In an opinion piece published in the New York Post, Herman points to several examples of Obama apparently seeking to downplay the traditionally close U.S.-Britain ties:

Obama did not hold a joint Rose Garden press conference with Brown, the “usual protocol” when a president and British prime minister first meet.
Instead of citing the decades-old “special relationship” between the two countries, a White House spokesperson referred to a “special partnership.”
In the traditional gift exchange between the two leaders, Brown gave Obama a pen holder made from the timber of the first British ship to fight the slave trade, and a signed first edition of the classic 8-volume biography of Winston Churchill by Randolph Churchill and Sir Martin Gilbert.
Obama’s gift to Brown was a collection of DVDs of classic American films, including “Psycho,” which are all available in British stores.

But Obama had earlier demonstrated his disdain for Churchill, ordering that the bust of Churchill that Prime Minister Tony Blair had presented to the U.S. after 9/11 be returned to the British Embassy.

In fact, another Churchill expert, “Churchill: Speaker of the Century” author James Humes, cited a report that when Obama first entered the Oval Office and saw the Churchill bust, he said, “Get that goddam thing out of here.”

Herman wrote in the Post: “This was a stunning posthumous attack on the memory of a man who was not only the living embodiment of the Anglo-American special relationship (Churchill was half American), but of its ideological foundations.”

That special relationship has seen American and British forces fight together in two World Wars, Korea, the first Gulf War, Bosnia and most recently in Iraq.

But the eight volumes of Churchill’s biography “will plainly sit unread on the White House bookshelf — because Barack Obama clearly considers that legacy, like the Anglo-American alliance itself, to be outdated,” Herman observed.

The London Daily Telegraph succinctly stated: “Obama has been rudeness personified toward Britain.”
Smells like passive aggressiveness to me.... typical in situations of this nature...

 

[DavidS]

Screw 'em. We had to rescue their asses in two world wars after they tried, repeatedly during the 19th century to "re-claim" us. They can wait for us.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Screw 'em. We had to rescue their asses in two world wars after they tried, repeatedly during the 19th century to "re-claim" us. They can wait for us.

And this is your defense of the Obama snub? What depth of analysis.

Also, I'm embarrassed for our country due to the way the First Lady recipricated for the gifts that Mrs. Brown gave her girls:

"Like all good guests, Sarah Brown arrived bearing gifts for the children, Malia and Sasha. And they were really nice presents. A bit of thought had clearly gone into choosing them: Top Shop dresses (with matching necklaces) and a selection of books by British authors. Lovely.

Mrs Brown may have two boys but she certainly knows the way to a little girl’s heart. These were gifts chosen in the true spirit of present-giving: to please the recipient, not the giver.

In return Mrs Obama gave the Brown children, Fraser and John, two toy models of Marine One, the Presidential helicopter.
Not only did she demonstrate that she spent approximately three seconds contemplating the needs of the Brown boys (having an aide pop to the White House gift shop for a piece of merchandising does not imply a great deal of thought), she appeared to show a most uncharacteristic lapse of judgment."

First Lady Michelle Obama shows even she has a gift for the gaffe - Times Online

 

[DavidS]

Screw 'em. We had to rescue their asses in two world wars after they tried, repeatedly during the 19th century to "re-claim" us. They can wait for us.

And this is your defense of the Obama snub? What depth of analysis.

Also, I'm embarrassed for our country due to the way the First Lady recipricated for the gifts that Mrs. Brown gave her girls:

"Like all good guests, Sarah Brown arrived bearing gifts for the children, Malia and Sasha. And they were really nice presents. A bit of thought had clearly gone into choosing them: Top Shop dresses (with matching necklaces) and a selection of books by British authors. Lovely.

Mrs Brown may have two boys but she certainly knows the way to a little girl’s heart. These were gifts chosen in the true spirit of present-giving: to please the recipient, not the giver.

In return Mrs Obama gave the Brown children, Fraser and John, two toy models of Marine One, the Presidential helicopter.
Not only did she demonstrate that she spent approximately three seconds contemplating the needs of the Brown boys (having an aide pop to the White House gift shop for a piece of merchandising does not imply a great deal of thought), she appeared to show a most uncharacteristic lapse of judgment."

First Lady Michelle Obama shows even she has a gift for the gaffe - Times Online

We have an economy that was hinging on collapse, trillions of dollars being spent and this is what you come up with? Michelle Obama's gift giving? If you're trying to bore me, you're doing a good job.

I have no idea what went on behind the scheduling of the President of the United States and his visit with the Prime Minister and any report is just pure speculation.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Screw 'em. We had to rescue their asses in two world wars after they tried, repeatedly during the 19th century to "re-claim" us. They can wait for us.

And this is your defense of the Obama snub? What depth of analysis.

Also, I'm embarrassed for our country due to the way the First Lady recipricated for the gifts that Mrs. Brown gave her girls:

"Like all good guests, Sarah Brown arrived bearing gifts for the children, Malia and Sasha. And they were really nice presents. A bit of thought had clearly gone into choosing them: Top Shop dresses (with matching necklaces) and a selection of books by British authors. Lovely.

Mrs Brown may have two boys but she certainly knows the way to a little girl’s heart. These were gifts chosen in the true spirit of present-giving: to please the recipient, not the giver.

In return Mrs Obama gave the Brown children, Fraser and John, two toy models of Marine One, the Presidential helicopter.
Not only did she demonstrate that she spent approximately three seconds contemplating the needs of the Brown boys (having an aide pop to the White House gift shop for a piece of merchandising does not imply a great deal of thought), she appeared to show a most uncharacteristic lapse of judgment."

First Lady Michelle Obama shows even she has a gift for the gaffe - Times Online

We have an economy that was hinging on collapse, trillions of dollars being spent and this is what you come up with? Michelle Obama's gift giving? If you're trying to bore me, you're doing a good job.

I have no idea what went on behind the scheduling of the President of the United States and his visit with the Prime Minister and any report is just pure speculation.

You see, that is the point. We hire a President to make certain that this level of meeting goes smoothly. It didn't, and it was not just the First Lady gaffe.

Put together with so many other missteps for this administration, in such a short time, and even Obama suck-ups (raise your hand) are beginning to to worry.