It's basically a state visit – which is normally reserved for the Queen, with a slight difference: a 19 gun salute rather than 21. But who's counting? The Telegraph's Janet Daley wonders what's in this for Obama? Well: bonding with an English conservative always helps his post-partisan image, especially since Cameron's politics – except on immediate economic austerity – are closer to Obama's than to the current Republicans. Cameron proudly champions socialized medicine and marriage equality, for example.
But isn't it also obvious, after the Netanyahu circus last week, that Obama is undercutting the Romney line that he doesn't back America's closest allies, and prefers to reach out to enemies? That's absurd, of course, but the images of a state visit help erase this mendacious meme. Win-win. And Cameron, for his part, gets some Obama magic rubbed off on him. The Brit press are lapping it all up.
Meanwhile, Obama gets to play the following card:
"Sometimes when we have foreign visitors, they're only visiting the coasts. They go to New York, they go to Washington, they go to Los Angeles, but the heartland is what it's all about."
(Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images.)
The Dish 