Barack Obama
Barack Obama
President
At Obama’s White House, Winston Churchill was sent into retirement, the spotlights were green for the East Room reception on St. Patrick’s Day, and the president shot some hoops with the champion women’s basketball team from the University of Connecticut. Obama’s gestures are different from those of previous presidents–no less political but not quite so conventional. Churchill? He’s not universally popular in Britain, for one thing, and Obama may even be aware of that, not that the president has shown much warmth for the United Kingdom–and so the Oval Office bust disappeared. Green lights for Ireland’s patron saint? The president is from Chicago, and don’t make the mistake of thinking that he’s too classy to enjoy a little cheesiness now and then. So the wine was green, too. The hoops? The 47-year-old chief executive sank his shots. The women, in dresses, were sweating.
