David Cameron and Barack Obama have just finished giving a rather cutesy and extremely verbose press conference following the reinvigorating of their bromance/serious talks on the economy and counter-terrorism.
The pair structured their opening statements to mirror one another, with each opening with a little tribute to the other. Obama said Cameron was a ‘great friend’ and ‘one of my closest and trusted partners in the world, while Cameron said Obama was a ‘great friend to Britain and to me personally’. A good friend indeed: Obama is basically doing everything he can to help Cameron be re-elected in this country.
One of the most useful quotes is the one from the President that the US and the UK economies are the ones that stand out in the world. With this press conference, the joint Times op-ed and Christine Lagarde’s glowing words, Cameron will certainly return to Britain feeling he’s just done a pretty effective spot of campaigning in the general election from across the Atlantic.
But in between all the fluffy words, the two men did have some very serious issues to discuss. Cameron said ‘we do face a very serious Islamist extremist terrorist threat’, though the threat level was currently the right one. He also said ‘we know what we are up against and we know how we will win’, while Obama said ‘this phenomenon of violent extremism… the networks, the capacity to recruit young people, this has metastasised and it is widespread, and it is penetrating communities around the world. I do not consider it an existential threat, as David says it is one we will solve’. This is an improvement from Obama’s remark last summer that there was no strategy for the fight against Isis.
There is also a ‘re-elect Cameron’ strategy in the White House, as evidenced by this press conference. It’s worth noting that Brits do have a pretty high opinion of Obama (much, much higher than the President’s ratings in his own country), and while his endorsement is hardly going to swing the general election, it’s pretty handy.
It’s also a useful contrast for the Conservatives to have pictures of their leader getting on so well with the President of the United States, when voters are currently struggling to imagine Ed Miliband as Prime Minister, let alone generating such warmth with a world leader.
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