printDespite animated discussion on the cable networks about the guest list for the British Royal wedding, I noticed that both anchors on FoxNews and MSNBC avoided mentioning the absence of the Obamas. I would have thought that Fox might gloat, but no. Could this be so because the official Left and the Right equate national greatness with the degree to which our political officials are courted across the world? To both official factions, our national honor is wrapped up in our political elites, and not in the common American. Perhaps FoxNews and MSNBC were equally embarrassed? Granted, to substitue for the Obamas’ absence, there are many other odious characters on the list. Still, Margaret Thatcher has been invited, but not Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the last two god-awful, Labor-government prime ministers.
The official line is good for a laugh: “[O]nly crowned heads of states and and political leaders from the 54-member Commonwealth of nations [are] traditionally invited to royal weddings.”
Maybe the young couple is afraid of the “Gangsta Gifts” Michelle Obama might have brought along?
From the grandeur of her White House Crib, the FLOTUS is famous for giving Prime Minister Brown a box of 25 DVDs including “ET,” “The Wizard of Oz,” and “Star Wars,” “a cheap gift which spoke to the giver’s impoverishment. The DVDs were also region-encoded for North America and could not be played in Britain. Brown gave Obama ‘a pen holder carved from the timber of an anti-slave ship.'”
“Before the DVD and gift-shop gaffes, there was the weightier matter of the bust of Winston Churchill. ‘The valuable bronze by Sir Jacob Epstein had been loaned by the British government to George W. Bush,’ wrote syndicated columnist Diana West. ‘One of President Obama’s first acts as president was to consign that symbol to a box and send it packing.'”
Most recently, as Daniel Hannan noted, Obama “used the Louisiana oil spill to attack an imaginary company called ‘British Petroleum’ (it has been BP for the past decade, ever since the merger with Amoco gave it as many American as British shareholders). … He managed, on his visit to West Africa, to refer to the struggle for independence, but not to the Royal Navy’s campaign against slavery.”
Whether you like Churchill or not is immaterial. The return of the Churchill bronze confirmed the suspicion that Obama was anti-Occident. The habit of giving inappropriate, thoughtless presents—despite the fact that he and his family were deluged with wild effusions of love and lavish gifts—this showed Obama to be, well, a bit of a pig.
Maybe Prince William and Kate Middleton think that inviting the rude American duo to their wedding is infra dig.
[Oh, I learned something new from all this: Tonga is a monarchy.]
Did not Obama dis the Queen when he visited by refusing to follow protocol? He did not bow, and I believe he turned his back to her. I’m sure his bad manners have a lot to do with it.
The Marxist Obamas hate the West. The Judeo-Christian values that helped shape these nations are despised by these people, I believe. They are tacky, classless people. I wouldn’t have invited them either. By the way, I would’ve thought Mrs. Obama would have given Prime Minister Brown a copy of the Wiz instead of the Wizard of Oz.
I actually knew about Tonga for a while. Can’t do better than “Crown Prince Siaosi T?ufa??hau Manumataongo Tuku?aho Tupou” (now King George Tupou V) for sheer awesomeness.
@Nebojsa: Look up king Kamehameha of Hawaii’s full name.
@Sueann: Visiting heads of state do not bow to the queen if they are not under her rule. However, that being said, Obama DID bow to that Saudi…
Whether we admire the Brits or not they have basicaly been our allies over the long haul. Since Obama has been in office he has treated them like the no class Chicago thug he is.
Cheap presents are hardly the worst insult this nation has handed to the British. In spite of the supposed special relationship we share, the greater portion of that ‘specialness’ is held by the British.
The US conspired with the British government to force British citizens to part with their American interests at bargain prices to facilitate American support in World War 2. After the war the United States played as big a role as the USSR in dismantling the remnants of the British Empire (read Otto Scott The Other End of the Lifeboat).
We also never released the British from their war debts. That and a few wars probably should top the giving of a substandard gift when the British evaluate their special relationship with the US.
There seems to be an assumption that left wing statists are intrinsically tolerant and un-biased. This is hardly true; just consider the true Yankee attitudes towards blacks – both before and after the subjugation of the (supposedly racist) South. No this entire ridiculous affair is just a little out of the reach of our prodigal leader- pc dogma is more an artifact of the american state. Too bad the utter irony won’t be noticed by leftist on either shore.