The Times (London) opines the First Lady could have (but didn’t) taken more than 10 seconds thinking of gifts for the children of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and wife Sarah, especially given the gifts Sarah Brown bought for the Obama children.
Side note – only a British paper would call peonies in a photo “menacing”!
The Telegraph weighs in with allegations of President Obama snubs to the Prime Minister, and insinuates “Lady Macbeth Obama” was behind it.
Dana Milbank, no conservative, British or otherwise, offers his American press take on what certainly sounds like a snubbing. He also makes clear that Brown’s office had been trying to push Obama to hold a full-blown presser some time in advance, and failed.
Tim Shipman at the Telegraph may well be right: Obama didn’t want to answer tough questions from the elbow-throwing British press.
Remember, this is a president who’s already given inclinations he has no problem stiffing the press at least as much as Bush did.
A further tie-in? Obama’s reportedly never-before-seen TelePrompTer dependency.
Well, sure, you’re going to want to stiff the press if their questions aren’t up on your TelePrompTer beforehand.
So, the myth of openness takes another hit.
OTOH, Alex Massie at the conservative Spectator doesn’t wholly blame Obama, given the British press corps.
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