Oh, the humiliation. Once not so long ago one of the world's top celebrities in his own right, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle did not make the cut for invitations to the royal wedding in London next spring.
On April 29 in Westminster Abbey with all the grace and pageantry sure to capture international imaginations, commoner Kate Middleton will marry Prince William, son of Princess Diana. And don't forget the horsedrawn carriage perhaps.
But the current residents of the White House will not be there, according to the Daily Mail.
The official excuse provided to the British paper by royal sources is that the royal couple wants to share their special nuptial moment with ordinary citizens. Anyway, it is not an official state event, they said. And, you know, Westminster only seats 2,000.
Nice try.
So then how to explain the invites to French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni?
And how to explain the invitations to England-loving President and Mrs. Reagan for the wedding of Diana and Prince Charles back in 1981? And the subsequent invitations to the American first family for the wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson five years later?
The English snubbed Obama? Don’t they like his policy of “smart diplomacy”? Hasn’t he raised our standing in the world, brought our allies closer, and turned enemies in to allies by just being the awesome one that he is? What possible reason could they have to be upset at the Chosen One? It’s not like he’s ever been called “the most unpopular man in Britain”. Right?... Oh, yeah! What has Obama done to deserve such a dubious honor?:
On that grand occasion in Buckingham Palace, President Obama on behalf of the people of the United States presented the British sovereign with the gift of an iPod. She gave him a photograph framed in silver.
That came a few months after Britain's visiting Prime Minister Gordon Brown was denied the traditional Oval Office photo op with the American president. And Obama gave Brown a couple of toy helicopters of Marine One and classic American movie DVD's, reportedly in a format incompatible with British players. Thanks for stopping by.
He, also, returned a bust of Winston Churchill, which was a gift from the British to the White House years ago.
Let’s not, also, forget, when Obama sent Gitmo detainees being sent to the British island of Bermuda, without even consulting with the British government. Obama was in such a hurry to try and fulfill his promise to close Gitmo that he didn’t even have the common courtesy to ask the prime minister permission before sending terrorists to one of his territories. Why would they be upset about that?
This is just another example of the fact his “smart diplomacy” skills has resulted in lowering our standing in the world with our allies and enemies not raising it, like he campaigned to do, when he was running for the presidency.
No matter how they try to spin this, this is a huge snub on Obama and, by-extension, America. He’s going to have to mend some fences across the pond in England and the rest of Europe, if he wants to get anything done on the foreign policy front.
