World Watch
September 24, 2009 4:48 AM

Obama, U.K. PM Brown Best Friends Forever

By
Tucker Reals
Topics
Obama Foreign Policy
(AP/News Team International/pool)
Just for the record, the British and American governments would like you all to know that President Obama and Prime Minister Brown get along just fine. They are good pals and have nothing but respect and admiration for each other, both in their personal and professional capacities.

Both governments are going out of their way to make that point Thursday morning after the latest eruption of indignation by the British press about Mr. Obama "snubbing" the U.K. leader on their simultaneous visit to New York.

"Angry Barack Obama rebuffs Gordon Brown," reads the headline in the conservative-leaning Telegraph. "At left: Prime Minister Gordon Brown, left, greets President Obama as he arrives for the G20 summit at the ExCel center in London, April 2, 2009.According to British media, the White House rejected at least five requests for a bilateral meeting between Brown and Mr. Obama on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly. An ominous sign, the reports scare Britons into thinking, for the long-touted "special relationship" between the two allies.Both governments immediately denied the reports of rejection.In an email which hit my inbox at the ungodly hour of 3:53 a.m. Eastern, the White House scrambled to pour water on the fire, which clearly had been keeping them up."Any stories that suggest trouble in the bilateral relationship between the United States and U.K. are totally absurd," began the statement from National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer. "The U.S.-U.K. special relationship is strong and doing well. We would add that President Obama and Prime Minister Brown enjoy a terrific relationship."Brown's office also dismissed the reports of any great friction between the White House and 10 Downing Street, calling them "completely without foundations".This round of row-denial (which follows similar reports of a "snub" during PM Brown's visit to Washington, when the White House decided not to hold the customary joint Rose Garden news conference), is the result of a very ill elderly man in Libya. That man, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was recently granted release from a Scottish prison after serving decades for the bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. He was freed on compassionate grounds based on medical assessments that said he'd soon lose his fight against cancer.Mr. Obama "expressed his disappointment" over the Scottish justice system's decision — which Mr. Brown's government vehemently denied any role in.It's possible that the Obama White House decided to give Brown the cold shoulder in New York over the decision to free al-Megrahi. I would just like to point out another possibility. Maybe Mr. Obama was just busy.The president met bilaterally on Wednesday with Chinese leader Hu Jintao, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama. He also gave his own address to the General Assembly. And, as CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk pointed out, his dizzying agenda also had him speaking to the U.N. Climate Change Summit, meeting with Sub-Saharan African leaders, becoming the first American president to chair a Security Council meeting, and holding a meeting for U.N. peacekeepers.

All that on top of trying desperately to awkward, impromptu encounters in U.N. corridors with unsavory characters like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez.

His meetings with Medvedev and Hu were absolutely critical to ongoing negotiations aimed at denuclearizing North Korea and ensuring Iran doesn't arm itself with nuclear warheads. His talks with Medvedev may actually have sealed Russia's key support for potential new sanctions against Iran.

While Great Britain is playing a role in those talks, Mr. Obama already sees eye-to-eye with Brown on the issues so a sit-down was far less important for the two leaders.

As for Hatoyama — he's only been in office for a matter of weeks, and as the new leader of a nation so deeply tied to the U.S. economy and military, their one-on-one was a commonsense courtesy call.

As his office was quick to point out, Brown did chat with Mr. Obama in a brief "walk-and-talk" in the U.N. kitchen on Wednesday, and the men were scheduled to see more of each other at events on Thursday.

So relax, Britain. We're still friends.


  • Tucker Reals

    Tucker Reals is a senior news editor and overnight site editor for CBSNews.com, based at CBS News' London bureau.

Add a Comment See all 21 Comments
by bradosol September 26, 2009 4:13 AM EDT
I'm British, in my late 60s, with several good friends in the US. But I've long since concluded that any 'special relationship' between the UK and US as countries - meaning a relationship which somehow transcends both our national self-interests - is a one-sided delusion on the part of us British.
Reply to this comment
by inketolstoy September 24, 2009 3:40 PM EDT
Sounds to me like you Brits got a lot of uptight politicos also. I would still have a beer with you (not some watered down American swill, but I'd rather not have that dark warm stuff you are famous for either).
Reply to this comment
by hower4 September 24, 2009 4:04 PM EDT
by inketolstoy September 24, 2009 3:40 PM EDT
Sounds to me like you Brits got a lot of uptight politicos also. I would still have a beer with you.....
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Well that's big of you, I'm sure we should be very thankful that we have your approval.
by markybruv September 24, 2009 9:56 AM EDT
The 'taint' you describe is tartan, we have had years of the Scots in parliament telling us English how we should be run. The sorry debacle of the megrahi affair had the English and Welsh tainted with a brush meant for the Scottish national party. Brown should climb into megrahi's hospital bed and die with him.
Reply to this comment
by kmccdoc September 24, 2009 1:22 PM EDT
MARKYBRUV - its still the United Kingdom parliament and the Scots have as much right to be represented at Westminster as the English. Its comments like yours that drive Scots to be even more nationalistic. Calm down.
by hower4 September 25, 2009 6:02 AM EDT
Scottish independence is coming quite soon. I would say within 5 years. There is a huge level of disillusion in Scotland with the corruption and mismanagement in Westminster. Actually there is the same level in the rest of the UK, but they haven't got any other choice!
by stn_sage September 24, 2009 8:20 AM EDT
It bothers me tremendously to see Mr. Obama 'paling around' with Mr. Brown---a man who has done so much to hurt Brits! He acquires a 'taint' that becomes difficult to remove!
Reply to this comment
by bubbadubba September 24, 2009 7:24 AM EDT
The Brit news organizations have nothing compared to the way the US news groups lie about and trash our President.
As just one example, f it were a person FOX news would be the anti-Christ.
Reply to this comment
by harryj79 September 24, 2009 5:59 AM EDT
Maybe Brown wanted another cheap boxset of DVDs from Obama?
Either way, the reason the press here in Britain are going crazy over this story is because it's yet another disaster for Gordon Brown. The media narrative is set, anything that goes wrong for Brown they will report. If this had happened to Blair it wouldn't have been reported. Because it happened to Brown the British media love it.
The reason Obama didn't want to see Brown, is because he doesn't need to. Add to that the fact that Brown is almost certainly not going to be Prime Minister after May 2010, and you realise it would be more of a story if Obama had invested any of his time in seeing our poor, useless Prime Minister.
Reply to this comment
by markybruv September 24, 2009 5:33 AM EDT
President Obama is avoiding Brown because he doesn't want to be seen with a dead duck, Brown is a useless leader and his wish to appear alongside President Obama is a cynical attempt to make the British public think Brown is still important, he is not.
Britain is fed up with Brown, the President would be wise to avoid him.
Reply to this comment
by hower4 September 24, 2009 7:17 AM EDT
Absolutely right........ but Obama isn't on firm ground either!
by hower4 September 24, 2009 11:17 AM EDT
by gop_victory2 September 24, 2009 9:21 AM EDT
America is fed up with Obama too. His economic policies have led us to ruin.
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Are you trying to be funny, or are you just another idiot Yank? How can his economic policies possibly have had any effect yet?
by hower4 September 24, 2009 5:33 AM EDT
"So relax, Britain. We're still friends."

That's exactly what Britain should be worried about!
Reply to this comment
by stuart-johns September 24, 2009 6:50 AM EDT
Well hower4, maybe you could move there and start a radio station and bash America from across the Atlantic while you save Britain from this evil, communist, socialist, Marxist regime.
by hower4 September 24, 2009 7:15 AM EDT
by stuart-johns September 24, 2009 6:50 AM EDT
Well hower4, maybe you could move there....
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I already live there. Have you got any more ignorant and insular assumptions you want to jump to? I know it a universal American characteristic, but you could TRY to be different............. or could you?
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