Having Failed to Unite the US Congress, Obama Faces Discord at G-20 Economic Summit

Guess what? Just as Obama has been unable to unite his own country solely by virtue of his astonishing personality, word from the G-20 has it that all the nations of the world are not yet ready to put aside their differences and kneel at the One’s feet, especially not France and Germany.

David Sanger and Mark Sandler at the NY Times report this morning:

For all the smiles at the waterfront Excel conference center, and despite calls for unity from Mr. Obama and Mr. Brown on Wednesday, a rift intensified over Anglo-American calls for greater fiscal stimulus spending and French and German demands for more intrusive global regulation of financial institutions. While President Nicolas Sarkozy of France did not repeat an earlier threat to walk out of the conference — “I just got here,” he joked — he made it clear he would reject an agreement that puts off stringent new regulations on banks, tax havens, and hedge funds.

Sanger and Sandler predict other divisions:

By the time Mr. Obama ended his evening at Buckingham Palace and a working dinner for the leaders assembling here — representing a group as diverse as the established European powers and Japan to Indonesia, India, Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands — it appeared likely that countries would divide into two or three camps.

The United States, Britain and Japan will push for more immediate stimulus and “systemic risk” regulators that mostly operate within national borders; Germany and France will push the opposite position, probably with some support from the Czech Republic.

That leaves China and Russia, among others, to exploit the division to play a significant role, though if tradition holds the major differences are likely to be smoothed out in wording in a final communiqué that each country interprets differently.

Obama Administration Disses Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown and Barack Obama at #10 last July. Getty Images

The same Obama who ridiculed Washington, D.C. a couple of weeks ago for closing schools due to ice cancelled a press conference today with Prime Minister Gordon Brown “because of snow.”

Toby Harnden, U.S. editor for the UK’s Telegraph, is more than a little sarcastic in reporting the non-event:

By 8pm, the press conference - if there'd ever been one planned - was officially off. The White House press schedule stated: "There will be a pool spray of the meeting." In layman's language, that means a small collection of reporters and perhaps two or three quick questions. That means something very quick and ample opportunity to dodge anything difficult.

As Ben Brogan of the Mail puts it, this is "not the standing podium-to-podium with the Messiah image that Mr Brown imagined". Trying to spin as best they can, the British Embassy is describing it as a "press availability" while Downing Street officials are apparently saying that "we are still negotiating".

Brogan quotes one Number 10 apparatchik as saying: "We're trying for something a bit more intimate but there won't be flags and podiums. We were going to do one in the Rose Garden but with the weather. They will be together and they will take questions."

Mr. Harnden continues:

The notion that there would ever have been a press conference scheduled in the Rose Garden at the start of March is, of course, faintly ridiculous.

Mr Brown might be forgiven for thinking that his friend, rival and predecessor Tony Blair would not have been treated the same way by his bosom buddy President George W. Bush. After all, there are 132 rooms in the White House at least some of which, presumably, are currently be free of snow.

On the other hand, President Obama is terribly busy this Tuesday. The White House schedule tells us that he is delivering remarks at the Department of Transportation to deliver remarks about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and is also speaking at the Department of Interior to mark its 160th anniversary.

There's a conflab with Pentagon chief Bob Gates. Oh, and Mr Obama will also meet "a delegation from the Boy Scouts of America and receive their 2008 Report to the Nation". in the Oval Office.

And here’s Mr. Harnden’s painful conclusion:

Mr. Brown might lament that despite the so-called "special relationship" Britain is now getting the same treatment as the President of Uruguay but he need not despair. I'm told there's a chance he might get drinks with Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday evening.

Ya think dissing the prime minister didn’t have anything to do with the weather after all? And get this: Brown is the first European leader to meet the new president.

A Presumptuous Presumptive Democratic Nominee Could Lose in November

Toby Harnden, US editor of the Daily Telegraph of London, has a word of warning for the Democratic party’s presumptive nominee, Barack Obama. Harnden begins:

“There was a spring in Barack Obama's step and a sense of heady excitement in the air as he took to the stage beside Berlin's Victory column for his latest Big Speech. Members of his expansive entourage could have been forgiven for dreaming about the West Wing offices they will occupy in January.

“By any yardstick, the first half of the Illinois senator's foreign tour was everything his campaign staff had wished for and a little bit more. Wherever he went, world leaders wanted to bask in his reflected glory as the presumed next president.”

Harnden reports Obama’s successes on his trip abroad while seemingly upstaging John McCain at every turn:

‘“Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq's welcoming gift was an endorsement of Obama's troop withdrawal plan. King Abdullah of Jordan was happy to be his limo driver in Amman while Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted she ‘wouldn't resist’ another presidential back massage.

“No wonder some in corridors of London's Foreign Office fear that Obamamania has taken such a grip on 10 Downing Street that the eagerness of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his acolytes to get a sprinkling of the stardust might alienate John McCain”

But here’s Harnden’s warning to the rock star candidate:

“Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee. Americans admire self-confidence up to a point, but fueling the notion that he's a presumptuous nominee is a good way to lose in November.”