Obama has destroyed so much of his magic by taking that selfie with Cameorn and the Danish woman.

[moondog]

What an appallingly crass thing to do.
I've really gone off him in a big way.

He really has.
Michelle looked utterly disgusted.

Me too.

I hate Cameron anyway and im never surprised at anything that clown does- bot Obama, I thought he had more about him than that.

Why? Can someone explain please?

Exactly. Cameron is a nothing but Obama....
Danish woman is Kinnock's daughter in law by the way.
Another cosy EU/Labour set up.

Taking selfies at a memorial service to one of the greatest men that ever lived??
Do we even need to explain where that even starts being so wrong?

Really? What's the big deal? Every one is celebrating Mandela's life and I Imagine anyone would be thrilled to be a part of that celebration.

Obama is a pretty modern guy, I like that what you see is what you get - he's not pretending to have composure for the sake of it.

(DC on the other hand always looks like a greasy school boy who's thrilled to be part of the gang)

Agreed completely.

It looks like a pretty challenging day - part celebration, part emotional memorial, part public, part private, part political. And I always find funerals hard/weird because of the chit chat and the fact that some people are really emotional and some are laughing and joking
BUT I am not the most powerful man on the planet. If I was, I would be a bit more aware of my behaviour.
There are loads of photos of heads of states obviously networking, and I'm sure it was a very interesting event from that perspective, but it all look quite disrespectful, self-serving and distasteful.

I'm in the strongly dislike camp.

I suppose, being charitable, you could say that they didn't want to embarrass the woman by refusing her request to be in the picture. I seriously doubt it was Cameron's or Obama's idea.

The one thing I always thought Obama had in spades was dignity. I've seen photos where he can be informal, goofy with his kids, kind of cool even, but always dignified. That is just so undignified and gauche.

Jee, and I thought the drones had quite taken his 'magic' already. Silly me.

I have always strongly disliked him and feel vindicated! Awful man a puppet and nothing more

Exactly oneholycow

Get over it. Ffs.

I still like Obama but sounds like this was a mistake on his part (and DC's judging from opinion here)

It's not a big deal to me though I've been very inspired this week by all I've learnt about Mandela's life through the tributes to him since his passing.

What magic? This is the man who is presiding over a country in which men are held without trial, in solitary confinement, force fed when hunger striking, kept manacled, denied communication with the outside world, all with no charges having ever been brought against them, for over a DECADE because of their religion and ethnicity. In my view Obama appearance at Mandela's funeral at all was a disgrace, the selfie just put the tin hat on it.

Obama also shook hands with Raul Castro, I think that is pretty amazing. #teamObama...

I got over Obama when he made his Special Olympics "joke". He seems to be a bit thick sometimes to be honest.

They're both a disgrace and yes to whoever said they are puppets the pair of them.

Who would do that at a funeral, no matter who it was for and even if it was 'celebration' imagine if someone had done that at Maggie's funeral apart from the street party throwers

I can think of worse scandals to be honest.

The blonde woman is the Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt by the way and not just Neil Kinnock's daughter-in-law. It might be beside the point of this post but I find it astounding that even some papers wrote about the blonde mystery woman not realising that she is the Head of State of Denmark. Imagine people in Denmark saying: I can't believe Helle is taking a selfie with Obama and that British guy...
I think it makes a difference that all three of them are senior politicians and should definitely know better IMO. I think Obama (and Cameron) would be forgiven if it had been a member of the public asking for a photograph...

Peggy the point that she is Kinnock's dil is relevant as it is another example of the state of politics.
Moreover, her actions reinforce prejudices about women. She acted like a teenager at a One Direction concert and not a head of state. She actually has hold of Cameron's face!
Something is indeed rotten in the state of Denmark.

Moon- are you suggesting that she forced Obama and Cameron to pose for that selfie? If so they didn't look very uncomfortable in the picture taken, quite the opposite! I don't think it's fair to suggest that "the woman" asked them to do it and they unhappily obliged. I don't think that Danish politics are any more or less rotten than British and American ones. I just find the whole ignorance with regards to her position quite shocking to be honest, maybe it's because I'm not British but it seems to me that a lot of other perhaps smaller (European) countries don't seem to get any interest or mention over here...

Rather off the point, but having had a look at the images of the day again the security guys look edgy as hell! Must have been a nightmare having so many heads of state in such a big place.