Downing Street is dismayed that Barack Obama has agreed to meet Tony Blair ahead of Gordon Brown on his whistle stop tour of Britain. Mr Obama will fly into Britain on Friday for a meeting at his London hotel with Mr Blair to discuss the Middle East and climate change. He will meet Mr Brown the following day at Downing Street but has declined to take part in a televised press conference with the Prime Minister. He will appear instead on the steps of Downing Street with Mr Brown to answer a few questions. He will then meet David Cameron the Tory leader. The Democratic presidential candidate has given priority to Mr Blair, who he is expected to have breakfast or dinner with, because he is still enormously popular in the United States. Mr Brown, by contrast, is barely known across the Atlantic. The six-nation tour by Mr Obama has enjoyed saturation coverage in the American media. Mr Obama's advisers calculated that photographs and television footage breaking bread with Mr Blair would play much better back home than with the Prime Minister.
Mr Obama will fly into Britain on Friday for a meeting at his London hotel with Mr Blair to discuss the Middle East and climate change.
He will meet Mr Brown the following day at Downing Street but has declined to take part in a televised press conference with the Prime Minister.
He will appear instead on the steps of Downing Street with Mr Brown to answer a few questions. He will then meet David Cameron the Tory leader.
The Democratic presidential candidate has given priority to Mr Blair, who he is expected to have breakfast or dinner with, because he is still enormously popular in the United States. Mr Brown, by contrast, is barely known across the Atlantic.
The six-nation tour by Mr Obama has enjoyed saturation coverage in the American media.
Mr Obama's advisers calculated that photographs and television footage breaking bread with Mr Blair would play much better back home than with the Prime Minister.
Or just a sign that poodlehood is the main quality sought in European leaders? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
