My Prediction

A disclaimer - I have never won anything in lotto but for another ticket. However, my thought on this issue, I believe, is very nearly spot on.



On the Beach, Omaha, stood Gordon Brown, current Prime Minister of England; Nicholas Sarkozy, the French President; Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister; and Prince Charles - filling in for his mother, who was noticeably absent.



The Queen is the only one of the lot who has any connection to Normandy and the battle that took place on the beaches - she is the only one old enough, the only one who served in the war (in her official capacity).



So the question of why she wasn't invited remains that, a question.....

To my mind it was a deliberate snub and there’s no two ways about it. That’s the French President for you.

'The Queen is the only head of state who served in the Second World War and she has far more right to be there than Barack Obama or Monsieur Sarkozy. I was
delighted to see the Prince,’ continued Mr Townsend, ‘but I think the Queen should have been here and I wonder why the French didn’t invite her.’

Mr Townsend’s feelings were echoed by many veterans wearing badges bearing the Queen’s photograph in protest at her absence.

Now aged in their mid and late 80s, the 65th anniversary may be the last time they are able to make their pilgrimage and they had longed to do it before their Sovereign.

Yet the French government had described the event as a ‘Franco-American occasion’, preferring to invite Tom Hanks, the star of the Hollywood movie Saving Private Ryan.

Their seeming precedence over the British head of state will further encourage accusations that Hollywood has hijacked D-Day, using creative licence to manufacture a cinematic history at odds with the truth through epics such as
Band Of Brothers, which Hanks co-produced with Steven Spielberg.

I don't believe it was the French President who instigated the 'snubbing' of the Queen. I do believe the French were the carrier of the message, but it was not Sarkozy. Sarkozy and Bush are very friendly. Sarkozy and Obama have virtually nothing in common and Sarkozy does not like the man personally (nor does his wife). It was not Sarkozy who wanted this to be a moment he and Obama got to bond - it was, I believe, at the insistence of Barack Hussein Obama, that the Queen was not invited.



Why? She would be the main character in the play that unfolded on the cliffs above Normandy - Not Barack. She would be the one the media would turn to, not Barack. She would capture the spotlight, for all the reasons the veteran referenced above gave - not Barack.



Barack cannot stand the idea he is not the center of all attention. With his speaking (teleprompter) ability, he should surely be the man on the field - and he needs the photo op - to use again in 3 years when he runs for president. It is entirely about politics. Everything he does domestically is politics and his handlers (with his knowledge) wanted this to be Obama Day, not Queen Day.



The truth will come out, but it may take some time. It will happen a) if Obama is weakened politically, b) he is defeated in 2012, c) on or shortly after January 21, 2017.



One way, or the other, the truth will come out and while the Queen may not be with us, we will also learn from insiders at Buckingham Palace that she was aware, and that Sarkozy was forced to exclude the Queen. She will, if I am correct, not forgive Sarkozy nor Obama, and this will play out if there are any future moments where the individuals could meet.

















Obama

She is very displeased !!

The Queen tells Brown of grave concern over MPs' expenses

By Simon Walters, Political Editor
17th May 2009


The Queen has told Gordon Brown she is worried that the scandalous revelations about MPs' expenses could damage Parliament.

She discussed the explosion of public outrage over the scandal in what is understood to have been a candid exchange of views when she met the Prime Minister for their weekly audience at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.


Maybe time to tell Mr Brown he let her down!


[To read the rest of the article, click on the title link.]








Queen

Obama, the PM, and The Queen

Ruining relationships, one at a time. Why on earth does the Queen wish to meet with Obama.




President Barack Obama dislikes Britain, but he's keen to meet the Queen

Iain Martin
Mar 6, 2009
The Telegraph


President Obama has been rudeness personified towards Britain this week. His handling of the visit of the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to Washington was appalling. First Brown wasn't granted a press conference with flags, then one was hastily arranged in the Oval office after the Brits had to beg. Obama looked like he would rather have been anywhere else than welcoming the British leader to his office and topped it all with his choice of present (*) for the PM. A box of 25 DVDS including ET, the Wizard of Oz and Star Wars? Oh, give me strength. We do have television and DVD stores on this side of the Atlantic. Even Gordon Brown will have seen those films too often already.

[Obama should hope that the DVDs were formatted for the UK!! Or the insult would be one worse!]

This was coupled with Michelle Obama's casual choice of gifts for the Brown sons - matching models of the helicopter which ferry her husband around. While Sarah Brown had spent time choosing gifts for the Obama girls, Michelle had clearly sent an aide to the White House gift shop at the last moment.

All in all, he doesn't think much of us, as I explained in my post here earlier this week.

But what's this? Something, suddenly, seems to have made the Obama White House perk up and start to take an interest in the Brits. The Queen has invited the President to tea when he's here for the G20 in April. And he's in through the front door of Buckingham Palace faster than a Harley Davidson roaring along Route 66.

Note how the coolness of Team Obama disappears when a bit of regal glamour is introduced into the equation. He might not like the Brits, but he can recognise a global superstar when he encounters one. He wants to be associated with her. He's shameless.


(*) If Obama, or someone in his inner circle, had spent two minutes thinking about what present to get Brown then they could easily have come up with something appropriate. He likes books. He loves American history. Get him a signed first edition of a good Robert Dallek book such as the brilliant Flawed Giant on LBJ. Come to think of it, Obama should read it too, if he hasn't yet, as it reveals a great deal about how a Presidency can go so wrong.







UK

Bush and the Queen

In 2007, from an MSNBC story concerning the Queen's arrival in Washington and Mr. Bush and his gaffes:





On the other hand, there was the president suggesting Queen Elizabeth was over 230 years old.
The president's slip of the tongue during welcoming speeches was inadvertent, of course, and quickly smoothed over with humor. But it wasn't exactly the flawless effort Bush had hoped would erase memories of the "talking hat" episode during the queen's last U.S. visit. (In 1991, during Bush's father's administration, a too-tall lectern left the audience able to see only the queen's hat behind microphones.)

Give or take a couple of centuries. The queen, a sprightly 81, gave an embarrassed Bush a gracious nod after he suggested she had celebrated the United States' founding in 1776. He meant to say she had attended 1976 bicentennial festivities.

"She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child," the president quipped, earning a reserved chuckle from his guest.


Later, Laura Bush made her own minor calendar mistake. She flubbed the year that she and her husband attended the state dinner hosted by President George H.W. Bush in honor of the queen, saying it was in 1993.


The president and the queen took markedly different approaches to their formal remarks.
Bush focused on the partnership between the United States and Britain in Iraq and against terrorism. In just four minutes, he mentioned "freedom" and "liberty" seven times. "Your majesty, I appreciate your leadership during these times of danger and decision," he said.

By contrast, the queen said her fifth journey to the United States was an occasion to "step back from our current preoccupations."

In the leaders' toasts at dinner, they took opposite tacks. Bush praised her for a reign that has "deepened our friendship and strengthened our alliance," while the British monarch talked of the threat of terror, problems like climate change and the likelihood of occasional disagreement between allies.

"Ours is a partnership always to be reckoned with in the defense of freedom and the spread of prosperity," she said.

Earlier gaffes aside, the day had the White House at its freshly painted best and brought excitement inside and outside its gates.





**********************************************

Unless one was not reading the unwritten story and not understanding the intention of the article concerning Bush and the Queen, it hasn't made any sense - the Queen, above the fray, disinterested in the smallness or pettiness of Bush, above the gaffes said by Laura and George, the Queen, not the least bit personally inclined toward this rough and unsuited man.





Except for one small thing ...




Mr Bush is the first President to be hosted at the Royal residence since Ronald Regan was pictured riding at Windsor with the Queen in June 1982.

Copyright © 2008 AP
Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! All rights reserved.

If she didn't like him, she would have kept him at Buckingham Palace, where Clinton stayed, and not had him go to her private residence, where she and her family go.


: )












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