A good day for Cameron

Today is one of those days when David Cameron gets full political benefit from being Prime Minister. He is basking in the president of the United States’ reflected glory.

The papers this morning are full of him playing table tennis with Barack Obama and tonight’s news bulletins will lead on their joint press conference at lunchtime. As Cameron stands next to Obama, he’ll look both a statesman and a centrist. It’ll be hard for Labour to attack Cameron as an extremist on deficit reduction when he keeps stressing how he and Obama agree on a sensible level and pace to get their budgets heading back into balance.

There are, obviously, substantive foreign policy issues for the two men to discuss. Both Libya and Afghanistan are in need of urgent attention. Then there’s the issue of Iran and its nuclear and regional ambitions, which hasn’t gone away.

But for now, this visit and being seen with Obama is all upside for Cameron.