The Brits reaction to the snub

In case you missed it, which is likely because the ObamaMedia didn't really talk much about it, Gordon Brown and his wife arrived her in the US for a visit with the new president. Now there's tradition behind these visits. A joint presser, a sit down meeting, a bit of dinner, usually an exchange of gifts, etc. This is something that has been tradition and routine for decades. So, how did it go? Both Barry and Michelle snubbed them. The gifts they gave in exchange were beyond thoughtless. They were classless, and showed that we have a pair of ignorant amateurs in the White House. So how did the Brits react to this? Well, for a start, Michelle has a new nickname -- Lady Macbeth:

On US radio's Garrison show today, I was asked for my reaction as a true born Englishman to President Obama's double insult - first the sending back of the Winston Churchill bust, then his snub to Gordon Brown. "Tough one. Really tough one," I said, torn - as most of surely are - between delight at seeing Brown roundly humiliated, and dismay at having the special relationship so peremptorily, cruelly and bafflingly ruptured.

Iain Martin is quite right here: no matter how utterly rubbish we have become as a nation in the Blair/Brown years, Britain's friendship is something Obama will come to regret having dispensed with so lightly. This was not the act of a global statesman, but of a hormonal teenager dismissing her bestest of best BFs for no other reason than that she felt like it and she can, so there.

What was the guy thinking? In researching my new book Welcome to Obamaland, I discovered that Obama's judgment is pretty dreadful - but this? My favourite theory so far - suggested by presenter Greg Garrison - was that it was a move calculated to please his Lady Macbeth. At the moment in Britain, we're still in the "Doesn't she look fabulous in a designer frock" stage of understanding of Michelle Obama. Gradually, though, we'll begin to realise that she is every bit the terrifying executive's wife that Hillary Clinton was. Or, shudder, Cherie Blair.

We may just LURVE Michelle's fashion sense. But Michelle doesn't reciprocate our affection, one bit. Her broad-brush view of history associates Brits with the wicked white global hegemony responsible for the slave trade. Never mind that a white, Tory Englishman - William Wilberforce - brought the slave trade to an end. Judging by her record, Michelle does not make room for such subtle nuance.

Consider her notorious statement that: "For the first time in my adult life I am really proud of my country." Consider her (till-recently suppressed) Princeton thesis, "Princeton Educated Blacks And The Black Community."

In it she writes: "I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."

Here we see that she has mastered the authentic voice of grievance culture. She also - the thesis was written in 1985 - pre-empts the Macpherson report's ludicrous, catch-all definition of racism: "A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person." No matter how hard young Michelle's white undergraduate contemporaries try to be nice, it's not their behaviour that counts, but how Michelle feels.

I don't mean to be mean or vicious here, but the proof is in the pudding, and it's apparent that Michelle still harbors a good degree of racial animosity towards white people. This explains some of her more outrageous statements on the campaign trial, and likely explains the snub of the Browns upon their arrival here for the first official visit of the British prime minister.

But what's worse is the fact that Barry is going along with his wife; thinking in the same vein, if you will. The Brits are our staunchest ally in the world, right next to Israel, as a matter of fact. (Barry has already thrown Israel under the bus so you knew it was only a matter of time before he tossed another ally under it.)

Barry seems content to wreck this nation and it's reputation around the world. So all you Barry supporters have no one to blame but yourselves for the sheer incompetence and idiocy this buffoon has brought to DC. You were warned. You were told. But you and the "tingling" media just couldn't get over yourselves, and see logic beyond your emotion. Call us a tad miffed by this, but there is a level of respect that is expected from foreign dignitaries. Prime Minister and Mrs. Brown gave the Obamas that.

For whatever reason, it wasn't reciprocated by the president and his wife, and that folks is beyond embarrassing. It's insulting.

Publius II

ADDENDUM: I just heard on a local radio talk show that the White House isn't happy this story got out. You know what we have to say to that? Tough. Deal with it. The Obamas acted positively classless in receiving the prime minister and his wife. So if they're upset and embarrassed by the fact that the truth came out over this little incident, maybe next time they'll act with better class and dignity. Doubt it, but we can always hope, right? After all, that's what this rube was supposedly about. Hope and change, right? We can always HOPE these two will CHANGE their attitudes.