[via Opinion Journal] When President Obama came into office, his administration made some decisions which seemed on their face to reveal a profound lack of grace when it came to interacting with Britain. He sent back the bust of Churchill, gave the British PM some crappy DVDs as a cheap gift, and snubbed the PM when he visited the US.
Wall Street Journal’s Con Couchlin offers some potential context.
Before he became president it was said that Mr. Obama harbored a deep grudge against Britain for its colonialist past. It is alleged that his paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, was tortured by the British during the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya in the 1950s, when it was controlled by Britain. In his autobiographical book “The Audacity of Hope,” Mr. Obama unflatteringly compares the British Empire to South Africa’s apartheid regime and the former Soviet Union.
If Couchlin’s theory is correct, say what you will about President Obama but the man sure can hold a grudge.
