David Cameron
Today, British Minister David Cameron will touch down in Washington for his first state visit with President Barack Obama. This is a big deal on many levels.
The issues
1. The BP Oil Spill. Need I write more? Predicting the closed-door discussion on this baby is next to impossible and I, for one, am not going to go there. Let’s just say it’s the proverbial elephant in the room.
2. The War in Afghanistan. Let’s face it – the U.K. is our biggest ally in this fight to the tune of 10,000 troops. If this doesn’t constitute a U.S.-U.K. Special Relationship, then I don’t know what does.
Regarding the Special Relationship – The Guardian mentions an obsession of sorts, at least on the U.K. side.
“So perhaps Obama will look to his meeting with Cameron for some light relief. For him, it is just another chat with a visiting European head of state, even though the British press and political establishment – obsessed with the ageing idea of a ‘special relationship’ – are likely to examine the nuance of every word and gesture.”
The whole notion of the “ageing idea” of the Special Relationship is rather scary. Ageing suggests death. Can you imagine a world where there is no U.S.-U.K. Special Relationship? You probably don’t want to – which is precisely why state visits are so important both in pomp and circumstance.
3. Ironically, both Obama and Cameron were voted into office on anti-incumbent waves – opposite anti-incumbent waves. For the U.S., it was an anti-conservatism and anti-business electorate that voted a far-left populist into office a la FDR. For the U.K., it was an anti-labor and anti-democratic socialist electorate that voted a center-right conservative into office a la Margaret Thatcher.
Both leaders were voted in on a ‘change vote’ with economies in literal despair. So how is the ‘change’ working out? Perhaps this will be an item of discussion – if, that is, the president and prime minister can get past points 1 and 2.
The personalities
All policy issues aside, we have two very big 40-something-year-old personalities coming together in Washington, which makes for an interesting discussion in-and-of itself.
Quite frankly, President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron could not be more at odds in terms of their political philosophies. But in the same vein – in terms of personal backgrounds – we have two men who are as much similar as they are dissimilar. Here are a few examples.
Age: Obama is 48; Cameron is 43.
Religion: Obama is a self-proclaimed Christian; Cameron is an Anglican.
Upbringing: Obama, the product of a multicultural family, grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia; Cameron, the son of a stockbroker and descendant of King William IV, grew up in a rather posh English home.
Hell raisers: Obama, on the campaign trail, admitted to a few delinquent years when he was young; Cameron was a member of the infamous Bullingdon Club at Oxford University (a sort of drinking society notorious for causing trouble and roughing up property around campus over the centuries).
Elite education: Obama studied at Columbia and Harvard; Cameron studied at Oxford.
Graduating with honors despite hell raising: Obama made Law Review; Cameron graduated with First Class Honors.
Pre-presidential/prime minister occupations: Obama went from community organizer to professor to director at Project Vote to lawyer to IL state senator to U.S. senator; Cameron went from head of ‘Political’ at the Conservative Research Department to economic guru for John Major’s campaign to senior advisor to a chancellor to director of corporate affairs at a communications firm to elected member of Parliament.
Clearly, in these two, we have a pair of very ambitious men who rose to the top at rocket speed, albeit with clearly different agendas. At a bare minimum, this meeting will be an interesting case study as to how two whip-smart leaders intersect or collide on a matter of important subjects, including the cult of their own individual personalities.
Noonan’s advice
In closing, I would be remiss not to include Peggy Noonan’s letter in The Telegraph this past Friday to Prime Minister Cameron on the subject of his one-on-one with President Obama, because it is just that spot-on good. Truth be told, it’s just good advice for Americans in general.
“Advice on your visit? Love America. It not only deserves it, at the moment it needs it. Our morale is low. Do you want to help preserve what has been called the Special Relationship? (Actually, I don’t know: do you?) If you do, then when you speak here, speak of your love for this great nation. We don’t, not in a deep way and not enough. Even our President doesn’t. He tries, but he can’t get it right because it’s all so abstract to him. He associates patriotism with nationalism. But patriotism springs from legitimate love and gratitude, nationalism from shallow aggression and conceit…
Anyway, when you speak of America speak with love. People will hear you. It will break through the clutter, as your media obsessives say. It will be a new message, or one Americans haven’t heard in a while done well, and truly. And don’t focus-group it. Mean it.”
Sarah Lenti is the blogger behind NMPolitics.net’s The Savvy. E-mail her at sarah@nmpolitics.net.