We mourn the passing of Margaret Thatcher, but President Obama is not exactly choked up. Like us, he puts her in the same category as Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan, but in Obama’s scheme of things, that’s a bad place to be. Over at NRO Charles Cooke observes:
The news that the Obama administration will sit out Mrs. Thatcher’s funeral, sending from the current crop only the charge d’affaires from the U.S. embassy in London, is disappointing. It seems that a seminal figure in Western history will be allocated the same level of functionary that was sent to mourn Hugo Chávez.
This is peculiar in and of itself, but especially so when one considers that senior officals have been readily dispatched by the administration for funerals past. The prime minister of Ethiopia was judged sufficiently important to deserve Susan Rice’s attendance, among others. The president sent Hillary to Vaclav Havel’s farewell, and also to send off the president of Ghana. Joe Biden led the delegation to a Saudi royal funeral. And Obama personally attended Polish president Lech Kaczynski’s. While she was first lady, Hillary Clinton attended the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997. What explains the decision to snub the Iron Lady, a call that was made before yesterday’s attack in Boston? Even if diplomatic protocol could be used to explain the decision, it would serve only to give the administration an excuse for not attending and not as a prohibition on them doing so. Suffice it to say that the administration should not need an excuse to stay away. On the contrary, any American administration should be jumping all over itself to attend the funeral of such a woman. Mrs. Thatcher was a world-historical figure who not only led a country that has enjoyed a strong (special, you might say) relationship with the United States for at least century, but who had an especially strong relationship with the United States herself.
Thatcher not only saved Britain from itself but joined forces with the Reagan administration to liberate much of Europe from a monstrous tyranny. That was no small thing. Thatcher stood behind Reagan when he told Gorbachev to tear down the wall. She bucked the European trend and allowed the United States to use British airspace after Lockerbie. She allowed the United States to host its arsenal of cruise missiles in the U.K., over loud protests. If the incumbent president doesn’t appreciate those things, then that is his preogative. But it certainly matters to those of us who do appreciate them. It matters to the British government, too. Former secretary of state for defense Liam Fox made no secret of his surprise, telling the Daily Mail, ”I think it would be both surprising and disappointing if after President Obama’s fulsome tribute to Lady Thatcher, the American administration did not send a senior serving member to represent them.”
It is certainly “disappointing.” Unfortunately, given this president’s historically cool attitude toward his British allies, it is not “surprising.”
Disappointing, to say the least, but not surprising. Not surprising at all. Cooke gets it exactly right.
PAUL ADDS: Barack Obama doesn’t like the British and he doesn’t like conservatives. Margaret Thatcher was guilty of being both.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.