Presidential praise for the British monarchy in meeting with Prince Charles perhaps reflects the gridlocked reputation of US politicians in Washington
Even adjusting for the standards of polite diplomatic chitchat, the president of the United States telling the heir to the British throne that Americans prefer the royal family to their own politicians livened up an otherwise routine White House photo-op on Thursday.
“That’s awfully nice to know,” replied Prince Charles after Barack Obama leaned in during their brief meeting in the Oval Office to tell him: “I think it’s fair to say that the American people are quite fond of the royal family.”
It was not exactly an invitation to bring back the redcoats, but even the prince wasn’t sure what to say when Obama went on to add: “They like them much better than they like their own politicians.”
“I don’t believe that,” replied Charles, before trying to rescue the moment by recalling his visit to the home of revolutionary leader George Washington the day before: “I tell you what was nice was going back to Mount Vernon yesterday.”
It wasn’t entirely clear whether the comments were intended just for public consumption either.
Though carried out in front of a pack of several dozen journalists during a so-called “pool spray” before their private meeting, the quiet exchange could not be heard by those standing just a couple of feet away.
Instead, it was picked up by a boom mike deployed by an Associated Press radio journalist and relayed by a White House pool reporter.
To the extent that the presidential praise for the British monarchy was anything more than politeness, it perhaps also reflects the gridlocked reputation of US politicians in Washington right now.
The only other words Obama spoke during the brief public encounter were to bat away questions about his policy on Iran and Israel, which is under intense scrutiny in Congress.
A somewhat charmed-looking Prince Charles, meanwhile, was due to meet these very critics on the Senate foreign relations committee later on Thursday afternoon.
Charles received fractionally less enthusiastic attention at the heart of American democracy, where he visited the grand committee room on Capitol Hill only to find less than half of its 19 members had turned up by the start of their photo opportunity.
Even one of these nine, Hawaii Democrat Brian Schatz, is not listed as a member of the committee, and just three other Democrats – Bob Menendez, the ranking member from New Jersey, Ed Markey, senator for Massachusetts, and Benjamin Cardin of Maryland – could be seen among the mostly Republican-led reception group.
But twenty minutes later, Charles was whisked away for a grander session at the heart of power in Congress: the private office of new Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.
After passing through a series of steadily-more ornate ante-chambers that would put Buckingham Palace to shame, the two posed for photos with McConnell’s wife, former labor secretary Elaine Chao, before another short private meeting.
McConnell’s press secretary speculated they were likely to find common ground on the subject of horses ahead of the prince’s visit to McConnell’s equine-loving home state of Kentucky on Friday.
Earlier, British officials had said they were hoping the substantive elements of the Prince’s private conversations with the president and senators were likely to focus around his close knowledge of the Middle East royal families.
But lest Prince Charles return to London with an inflated sense of the role of monarchy in modern political life, the rest of his schedule in Washington has served as a constant reminder of the nation’s republican traditions.
On Wednesday, the prince visited the National Archive in Washington – partly to see a loaned copy of the Magna Carta, but also such venerable documents as the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and US Constitution.
On being shown the constitution by historic expert Douglas Smith, vice president of the Montpelier Foundation, the prince peered politely at the famous break from British rule and asked: “Did it take long to write?”
He also received a lesson in the multi-cultural aspects of modern American life during an earlier visit to the Carlos Rosario adult education school in Washington where new immigrants were pleased, if slightly, bemused by his presence.
The first group of Spanish and Ethiopian speakers was learning American-English vowel sounds when he came in and seemed slightly thrown by the arrival of an entirely new accent.
“English not easy,” consoled the prince in his best pigeon, before trying to break the ice by telling one young women how he had once met Haile Selassie as a child.
Cr : The Guardian
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