As Matt reflected just after Obama’s election win, both David Cameron and Gordon Brown desperately want to be and be seen to be Barack Obama’s best friend. There’s a bit of a blow to the Cameron campaign today with a New Statesman story about how Obama branded Cameron a ‘lightweight’.
But a close read of it suggests that the sources for this claim might be in Whitehall not Washington:
James Macintyre’s piece is well worth reading but I must admit I’m slightly puzzled by this piece of analysis:“Instead, I have been told, Obama exclaimed of Cameron after their meeting: “What a lightweight!” He apparently also asked officials about Tory Euroscepticism. Soon, word about the rather awkward encounter between the two self-professed candidates of change made its way quietly round the upper echelons of Whitehall.”
“…on defining international issues such as the invasion of Iraq (unlike Clinton and certainly unlike Cameron), Obama’s position was closer to that of mainstream Europe – which, as led by President Jacques Chirac of France, tended to be more ‘doveish’ than ‘hawkish’.
Britain’s best politics newsletters
You get two free articles each week when you sign up to The Spectator’s emails.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in