Michael Cosgrove - Now that President Obama has left British shores for Deauville in France and the G8 summit, the extent and nature of British press reaction to his visit is now online. Here's a round-up of what was said, which ranges from almost adoring praise to suspicions that he only went to make poor old British PM David Cameron feel wanted in a world which is seeing a decline in British influence.
Highlights of the visit included a stack of photo ops in Cameron's company, talks at Downing Street, and a barbecue during which Barack, Michelle, David and his wife Samantha served up the burgers (Dave and B) and salad (Michelle and Sammy) to servicemen and women injured in action. The Telegraph pithily called this 'a triumph for barbecue democracy.' Michelle wowed him out though with her visit to the august Oxford University to have a girls-only chat with a group of schoolgirls from a school-like-all-the-others in London.
It was a very smart move. Oxford University is currently under fire for allegedly not accepting enough black students (only 99 undergraduates out of a total of 11,000) which made her decision to talk to girls from a school with a majority of black children a talking point. Although she didn't allude to this issue she recalled her doubts as a person from a relatively lower social status as she entered a prestigious American university to begin her studies. “Don’t be afraid to fail, to take a risk, to ask stupid questions, to trip, fall and get back up again” she said, and her message was unequivocal. The girls could do what she had done, black or not. To cap it all of she revealed that she thought Barack was "cute" when she first met him. Mission accomplished.
Back to Barack, and he said what Cameron and Europe wanted to hear, which was that he was committed to the transatlantic relationship and the UK. That the United States may neglect Europe in favor of the dynamic Far East has been a major worry here, so Cameron must have been over the moon when Obama said on the subject of changes in the global power and economy equation that "And yet, as this rapid change has taken place, it has become fashionable in some quarters to question whether the rise of these nations will accompany the decline of American and European influence around the world. Perhaps, the argument goes, these nations represent the future and the time for our leadership has passed. That argument is wrong. The time for our leadership is now."
In fact Obama had already guaranteed himself a certain amount of popularity with a BBC video interview in which he called Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh "extraordinarily gracious people". That is cannot-fail stuff, no doubt about it.
But not everyone at the Beeb agreed with everything he did. Top BBC journalist and American citizen Mark Mardell said that his speech at Westminster Hall was "flat and lacked soaring passion." Mardell's view is that Obama sometimes sounded more like a Neo-Con than an anti-war president. This was because Obama's speech was essentially about how Britain and the Magne Carta had started off the whole rights and democracy thing, that the USA had always supported this and that both were spreading not Western values but universal rights. Mardell says that "He doesn't spell it out, but it is a reminder many of the rising powers don't value democracy and human rights. Those that do may not have the desire to promote them in the muscular way that Britain and America can and do - at the point of a gun."
Most of The Telegraph's coverage was positive, but they did let off a round across Obama's bows in an editorial which claims that his policy towards the Arab world is inconsistent and that he resents Britain's colonial past. Also, the paper says that those British people sympathetic to Israel's cause - and The Telegraph takes a generally pro-Israel stance - will be angered by his plan to return Israel to its 1967 borders. Both claims are the paper's opinion of course but many British people will share its sentiment that "Mr Obama is not interested in British domestic politics."
The Guardian summed that opinion up better and more succinctly than most with a cartoon sketch showing the Obamas waving goodbye as they leave Downing Street on their way out of Britain. Michelle whispers "He's not that special" and Barack answers "...but he is essential." Why does he say that? Because there's a valet behind him carrying their luggage items, which are labeled "Libya", "free market globe trot", "Afghanistan" and "Trident cruises" (in reference to Britain's nuclear deterrent.)
Most opinion in Britain would agree that Obama's visit was effectively more about keeping Europe happy and onboard on issues concerning them than anything else, because his biggest priorities now lie elsewhere in the world and with other geopolitical interests and economies, such as those concerning China, India, Pakistan and the Far East in general.
And as Britain is no longer a major world player, and because the British are now aware of this reality, it may well be safe to say that most of them are pragmatically thinking along the lines of "fair enough, he's pretty cool as politicians go, and although we know we're not too important now and that he was mostly doing a PR job, I'd do the same if I were him."
