NEWS FLASH: Barack Obama NOT to meet Nick Clegg

Via Iain Dale, I came across this humdinger of a post. It starts by asking one of the great questions of our time in the title:

Is it time Obama met Nick Clegg?

It is going to have to be a really imaginative and outrageously good argument to convince me that it is time for Obama to meet Nick Clegg. Because, let's face it, as President of the United States of America Obama probably has better things to do that meet the leader of Britain's failed third party.

After the news that Nick Clegg has met President Zardari of Pakistan, I have some issues that I want to raise. First of all it’s great to see that Zardari even realises that the Lib Dems are the best party for the Pakistanis in the UK.

Does Zardari really believe that the Lib Dems are the best party for Pakistanis in the UK? Where's the evidence for this? Simply having a meeting with someone doesn't mean you think that they are the best party. After, Clegg has met with Brown in the past, and doesn't feel Brown's party is best. In fact, a post on the same blog (albeit by a different author) details Clegg's meeting with Zadari. But does not make the claim that Zardari sees the Lib Dems as the best party for Pakistanis in the UK. Maybe Zardari has said this. But it would be nice to see a link to it.

Now let’s return to my campaign to ask Obama to meet Nick Clegg, if the President of Pakistan believes that the Lib Dems play an important part in UK politics and has wanted to meet Nick Clegg then I think Barack Obama should as well.

This is easily the most stupid and facile argument I have encountered in quite some time (and I've been reading a lot of LabourList recently!) Just because the President of Pakistan thinks or does something doesn't mean the President of the United States needs to think or do the same thing. The quickest way to dismiss this idea is to revert to the old teacher retort of "if the Pakistani President jumped off a cliff, would the US President have to do the same thing?"

The problem is Barack Obama is too focused on a relationship with Cameron, and personally I think that could be bad for Obama.

Now, why might Obama be focused on a relationship with Cameron? What might happen in the next 12 months to Cameron that might encourage Obama to form a strong relationship with him? Oh yes, this time next year, David Cameron will almost certainly be Prime Minister. Perhaps that's why Obama is focused on Cameron. And you might argue that it is bad for Obama to have a strong relationship with Cameron. But I'd imagine it would be worse for the President of the United States not to have a good working relationship with the man who is poised to become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Cameron didn’t support Obama as a candidate; he doesn’t care the slightest about Barack Obama and his career and he is the leader of the party that has politicians giving a negative image of the NHS to the USA. Clearly its time Obama met Nick Clegg?

No, Cameron didn't support Obama as a candidate in an election Cameron had no real influence on or a vote in. I don't know whether Cameron cares about Obama or his career - although I'd imagine that Cameron does want to have some knowledge of a man who, this time next year, will be one of his fellow world leaders. And what does Dan Hannan's comments about the NHS have to do with Cameron's relationship with Obama? After all, Obama himself doesn't want to go with the NHS as a healthcare system. If Obama is aware of Hannan's comments, I'd be surprised if he associated them that much with Cameron or even cared.

So is it clearly time for Obama to meet Clegg? Why, precisely? Other than a Lib Dem blogger wanting some of the supposed Obama glory to rub off in Clegg, what possible reason could there be for the President of the United States of America to meet with the a party leader who is never going to be Prime Minister?

In short, Ahmed's wonderful, ludicrously demented post bears no connection with reality and also possesses no real coherence. With champions like this, it is no wonder that the Liberal Democrats are going to struggle to get any political influence in this country. Let alone get real influence on the international stage.