Obama and Brown

At some point, dire poll ratings begin to undercut a Prime Minister’s standing on the international stage as other leaders decide that there’ll be a new PM along soon so there’s no point in investing that much in the relationship. Gordon Brown appears to have already reached this point if Barack Obama’s comments are any guide. Here’s what Obama said in an interview broadcast on Sunday:

“The objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people like President Karzai or Prime Minister Maliki or President Sarkozy or others who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to ten years.

It’s important for me to have a relationship with them early, that I start listening to them now, getting a sense of what their interests and concerns are”

Now, you can say that Obama just forgot the PM. But his omission from the list shows that Obama thinks there is no political upside in the US from name-dropping Brown.