Cheat Sheet

The Queen of England and the First Lady of the United States finding common ground. Remember when Nancy Reagan went to London when her Ronnie was Prez? The English regarded her as imperious and she was highly criticized.

Michelle Obama embarrassed the USA yesterday. Her inappropriate behavior and attire continue to demonstrate how she is in desperate need of a fashion and etiquette consultant as is her husband, the President of the U.S. Learning proper protocol and respecting it are among the duties of the President and the First Lady of the U.S. They are representing us around the world and they are failing to do so in an appropriate manner.

The audacity of the Obamas knows no bounds, an Ipod is a completely inappropriate gift to give the Queen of England, loaded with his own speeches, no less.

Barack Obama is simply not Presidential. He's unqualified and overwhelmed for the task.

The person who should be President, Hillary Clinton is the only bright spot in this otherwise sorry administration.

It's pretty telling and pathetic when socialisit Europe thinks the U.S. Obama economic plans are wrong and that Obama wants to spend too much money!

Capitalism is what made America great, let's fight to keep it! Socialism is not the model we should emulate.

My Democratic party has taken a dangerously sharp turn left, that's why this centrist Democrat refused to support Obama.

The media promoted Obama 24/7 for nearly two years and they continue to do so. Imagine if Hillary, Bill or George and Laura had behaved the way Barack and Michelle have behaved in Europe. The press treatment would surely have been quite different.

Why the media (who have little money to waste these days) have spent such an enormous amount of money to travel to Europe to cover the events only to find themselves nearly shut out by the Obama team and yet they put up with it, the question remains, WHY?

i think considering that the Obamas have more power than the queen of england they should be the ones setting the rules

Can we all just see what this really is - the Queen who is a smaller older lady with grace and Michelle Obama a generous lovely younger woman, whom respect one another, as women. They obviously formed a bond and felt comfortable with one another. Why do some reports state Michelle was first with the hug and most others say the Queen was. Michelle did what was natural with an older lady especially being squeezed together with their height difference. It's apparent Michelle sees love in the Queens heart otherwise she would have kept her distance, vice-a-versa. The Bush/Merkel encounter was not this.

President Obama gave the Queen and IPod because she requested it! If the Queen wanted me to make a favorite playlist especially for her, I would love it! Music is universal and a joy. And you thought your Valentine mix up was hard!

Not that I have ever been beholding to British royalty, but gee folks, you don't suppose that maybe, just maybe, even the Queen sometimes gets tired of stuffy royal protocol? Michelle and Liz are getting along just fine, get over it.

Wow!!! I am from the UK and thought I would seek out what the Americans are saying about one of their own...I cannot believe the hate..why? The queen broke protocol first not the other way round. We love the Obama's here in the UK they have quashed the previous feelings we felt for the Americans..so you all better stop your negatives. Give them a chance they are actually positive people, so easy to get on with, approachable people, educated, classy I could go on.

I was honoured to meet with Michelle, she visited my place of work, down to earth is what we Brits like and she certainly is.

I think it is different when a man does it than why a woman does it, it is only a big deal, because heads of state very seldom act human to each other, and by time they did, so this is a good start.

I think the other issue might be, as a person gets more elderly they may realize that their journey is about to end, and they are leaving things behind, their last photos maybe, their last outing together, their last meeting, their last meal.

So HM may have thought, if this was my last moment, maybe I want to remind Michelle how special she is, how far she has come, and how important she is as a role model, to people who may have given up on integration as a real option, and who voluntarily segregate themselves, which limits their own opportunity. The citizens of the Common Wealth need to see that maybe...

HM may also have made the decision, she will start living her moments her way, as if they were her last, so they can be the best they can be.

I think it's a lovely gesture...........Michelle Obama seems like a warm, demonstrative woman who would naturally embrace an older lady........The Queen did not show offense; au contrare, I believe it was she who made the first physical overature by putting her hand on Michelle's back. It would be nice if there were more PDAs of that nature (with mutual consent) to show that heads of state are just as human (well, some of them) as we are. Find something important to kvetch about, like war or world poverty.

The Queen is just there to cut the ribbon at the opening of a new shopping mall and as a tourist attraction for foreigners. "Royalty" doesn't mean a damn thing to me and I would find it extremely distasteful to be expected to bow and scrape before her and refer to another human being as "your majesty". Give me a break. She takes a dump between two feet like the rest of us.

I was under the impression that the Royals were finally trying to appear "real" in the eyes of the world. It seems clear to me that Queen Elizabeth was genuinely enjoying the Obamas visit and not only offered familiarity, but readily accepted it.
Is it impossible to accept that Queen Elizabeth has a depth of warmth?

The first thing I thought when I heard this was, 'didn't I hear the Obamas were being told what to do and not to do when meeting the queen?'

Guess that didn't matter.

However, TK7899 wrote that "Michelle Obama embarrassed the USA yesterday." Really? I tend to think this is faux outrage on his/her part.

"Inappropriate behavior and attire continue to demonstrate..." What? Really?

Yeah, she shows her arms - OMG!!!!

She touched the queen - say it ain't so!!!

"Barack Obama is simply not Presidential. He's unqualified and overwhelmed for the task."

Because of his wife?

"The audacity of the Obamas knows no bounds."

'Cause she touched the queen?!?

One wonders if TK had a problem when George the II made a joke on her (for the record, it didn't bother me)?

Oh, but wait, "The person who should be President, Hillary Clinton is the only bright spot in this otherwise sorry administration."

I guess her embarrassing her self in front of the Russian president doesn't count....

"It's pretty telling and pathetic when socialisit Europe thinks the U.S. Obama economic plans are wrong and that Obama wants to spend too much money!"

That's because the socialists and capitalists in Europe are thinking about themselves not the U.S.

"Imagine if Hillary, Bill or George and Laura had behaved the way Barack and Michelle have behaved in Europe."

TK seems to have a short memory.