Welcome to the White House, Mr. Obama...

I found the 7 March Telegraph article, “Barack Obama ‘too tired’ to give proper welcome to Gordon Brown,” somewhat alarming.  Below are a few quotes from the article that peaked my interest with some commentary…

“They [British officials] concede that Obama aides seemed unfamiliar with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister.”

This smacks of U.S. incompetence.  How can “aides” be unfamiliar with the protocols for a foreign head of state visit, especially one of our closest allies?  There are people, apolitical government employees, who work at the White House, along with State Department folks, who do this stuff for a living.  This is just lack of attention to detail.

“But Washington figures with access to Mr. Obama's inner circle explained the slight by saying that those high up in the administration have had little time to deal with international matters, let alone the diplomatic niceties of the special relationship.”

“Little time to deal with international matters…”?  Isn’t the economic crisis an international matter? 

“Allies of Mr. Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr. Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president's surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.”

Rom Emanual better get this under control – this is a marathon, not a sprint.

“A well-connected Washington figure, who is close to members of Mr. Obama's inner circle, expressed concern that Mr. Obama had failed so far to ‘even fake an interest in foreign policy.’”

This will change as time passes.  Once again, isn’t the economic crisis an exercise in foreign policy?

“The American source said: "Obama is overwhelmed. There is a zero sum tension between his ability to attend to the economic issues and his ability to be a proactive sculptor of the national security agenda.”

Jim Jones and the national security team can help here by boldly setting the national security agenda for Obama.  Emanual can assist by making sure Obama’s daily schedule is structured and includes aspects of domestic policy, foreign policy, and the intersection of the two.

“But they [British diplomats] concede that the mood music of the event was at times strained. Mr. Brown handed over carefully selected gifts, including a pen holder made from the wood of a warship that helped stamp out the slave trade - a sister ship of the vessel from which timbers were taken to build Mr. Obama's Oval Office desk. Mr. Obama's gift in return, a collection of Hollywood film DVDs that could have been bought from any high street store, looked like the kind of thing the White House might hand out to the visiting head of a minor African state.”

This is just embarrassing…

Gordon Brown’s unfortunate visit is not Obama’s fault.  The fault here lies with his staff.  If the information in the article is true, Obama’s closest advisers need to quickly come up to speed on how to keep their boss focused on the “closest alligator to the canoe.”  It appears that Obama is getting into the “weeds” and getting bogged down.  We need our president to provide a strategic vision and stay above the fray.