Michelle Obama Touches Queen Elizabeth
By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Did you hear about the scandalous international incident? No, not our president giving the Queen of England another iPod. I'm talking about the first lady placing her arm around the royal personage of her most royal highness, Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom. This breach of royal protocol—one does not put one's arm around a monarch—raises this important question: Why does royalty of any sort still wander the earth?
Seriously. Democracy has flourished around the globe in the last couple of decades, but we still worry about ... the Queen, hereditary monarch of England. (And that's not even to mention the royal princes running Saudi Arabia who have invested in them the unfortunate combination of silly tradition and actual power.)
To her credit, Her Most Britannic Majesty behaved like a human being rather than an anachronism. From the Mail Online's aptly named Rebecca English:
America's First Lady Michelle Obama broke royal protocol during a reception at Buckingham Palace when she placed her arm around the Queen.
But rather than take offence, Her Majesty took the unusual step of returning the gesture by putting her arm round Mrs Obama's waist—almost as if to confirm the special relationship the politicians are so keen to play up.
Protocol/style note to Ms. English: "first lady" is not an official title, so it does not get capitalized when writing about first lady Michelle Obama.
We can all, I suppose, be thankful that Mrs. Obama did not behave as another Chicagoan, the late Mayor Bill Thompson, once did, threatening that if the then-sitting British monarch entered the Windy City, he would "bust King George on the snoot."
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Tags: Elizabeth II | Michelle Obama
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Reader Comments
The U.S. first lady touching the Queen
Get over it already.
The Queen herself apparently isn't bothered by the incident so why is everyone else. For Christ sakes she's a human being not a spirit in transit to the father forbidding human touch.
I applaud the Obama's for their sophisticated yet down to earth approach in requards to meeting with the Queen. Has anyone took the time to think that the Royals themselves may actually enjoy a little normal interaction in their lives periodically, after all they didn't start their fairy tale destiny but they must fulfill it. I can't help but imagine that it's the very people who can't stand the blue bloods or think that the royals are out of touch with reality, who are responsible for the garbage we're reading about in all this. Wake up people the planet is on the verge of catoclysmic kaos, we as a people have a lot more to worry or be concerned about.
IS THIS ALL WE HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT
I WISH THAT THE FIRST LADY PUTTING HER ARM AROUND THE QUEEN IN A DIGNIFIED WAY, WAS THE WORST PROBLEM WE HAD AND ALL WE HAD TO WORRY ABOUT.IF THE QUEEN DIDNT SEEM TO MIND WHY DO YOU ALL MIND? JEALOUS ? OR JUST NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT TO WRITE ABOUT?
WAKE UP AND WORRY ABOUT THE IMPORTANT STUFF.GOD KNOWS OUR COUNTRY HAS MUCH BIGGER ISSUES.
Royalty Part 2
Just another thought.
You guys fought a bloody revolution to throw off the yoke of privelidge and all the trappings that still afflict the UK due to it's monarchical system.
Please don't forsake the memory of your founding fathers and their eloquent and aspirational words contained in your founding documents by worrying about the first lady placing her arm affectionately on another human being's back - as a result of the same gesture being made by the person in question.
I have always admired the US and it's leaders exactly for the fact that you don't bow to royalty and don't readily recognise privelidge or position that is has not been earned.
I for one applaud the Obamas' casual but dignified approach to their meeting with Queen Elizabeth.
And for any Australian Royalists out there, you keep blabbing on about how she's 'my queen' so I'm entitled to express an opinon!!!
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