That's a long and special relationship and, in fact, it's Barack-proof, so we're in some luck . . . Oops. Iain Martin (Telegraph of London) explained March 6th, "President Obama has been rudeness personified towards Britain this week." Short version, Gordon and Sarah Brown arrived for a state visit (Gordon Brown is England's Prime Minister). Gifts to the Obamas, including to their children, were selected with care. And Barack and Michelle gave White House gift shop presents: cheap, tacky and insulting. (No, Jackie Kennedy would never have allowed that to happen.) It was a huge and ugly insult and though most American outlets either ignored it or tried to laugh it off, it has caused a serious rift.
Adding to that rift? Willem Buiter (Financial Times of London) notes:
Since the Obama administration took over on January 20, the US Treasury has effectively been out to lunch. As widely reported (see e.g. this account in the Financial Times), Sir Gus O'Donnell (as cabinet secretary the top UK civil servant) has attacked the 'absolute madness' of the US spoils system, where a new Federal administration replaces the entire top stratum of the civil service with new officials possessing the right political connections and leanings. Quite a few of these top officials need to be confirmed before they can start working. This can take months. Many of the new officials have no political, government or administrative experience and spend most of their first months in office trying to figure out where the washroom is instead of designing and implementing policy.
Boston Boomer (The Confluence) highlights the above and more including wondering where the seventeen deputy secretaries are for Tim Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury?
There are none. Zero. Zilch.
Barack wants you to believe he's hard at work. And he is. He's hard at work planning a big overseas trip. How come? Because Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, got a tremendously war reception throughout the trip she just completed.
So now Barack, who still hasn't assembled a Treasury Department, wants to take an overseas trip. He wants to visit Turkey and the other places that Hillary just visited. No, that's not how diplomacy is done. That is how an egomaniac, one not used to sharing the spotlight -- dare we say one who walked out on his own mother when a new sibling outshined him? -- responds.
The US does not have the time to live through Barack's psychosexual remnants from childhood. He's the president of the United States, a job he actively campaigned for. It's time for him to start acting like it and it's time for him to get to work. While he has managed to get Germany and France to steer their own (US-less) course and he appears eager to 'convince' the UK to do the same, he's still not working for the American people.
