Darn! Just when you think there’s a great new topic to use to score points with a negative, it’s yanked away from you! It turns out that — despite what some pundits have been proclaming — there was a bit more to First Lady Barack Obama breaking protocol with the Queen of England. Like…the Queen broke it, too:
Michelle Obama’s meeting with Queen Elizabeth II began with a handshake and ended in a hug.
The first lady arrived Wednesday with President Barack Obama. After separate meetings on the eve of the G-20 summit, the couple attended an evening reception for world leaders hosted by the queen.
Mrs. Obama clearly made an impression with the 82-year-old monarch — so much that the smiling queen strayed slightly from protocol and briefly wrapped her arm around the first lady in a rare public show of affection.
It was the first time Mrs. Obama — who is nearly a foot taller — had met the queen. The first lady also wrapped her arm around the monarch’s shoulder and back.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman who asked not to be identified because of palace policy said he could not remember the last time the queen had displayed such public affection with a first lady or dignitary.
“It was a mutual and spontaneous display of affection,” he said. “We don’t issue instructions on not touching the queen.”
It’s good this statement came out now.
Just think if Bill Clinton was President and he learned it was Ok to touch the Queen.
And would President George Bush have given her a back rub?
She didn’t break protocol? Now what can we write about? Wait! Obama gave the Queen an iPod with his speeches. He offended the Queen!!! He made the U.S. look bad! He…
(Etc.)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.