I gather the British tabs are or were in a bit of a tizzy over the Churchill bust scandal. For those of you who somehow missed it:
A bust of the former prime minister once voted the greatest Briton in history, which was loaned to George W Bush from the Government's art collection after the September 11 attacks, has now been formally handed back.
The bronze by Sir Jacob Epstein, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds if it were ever sold on the open market, enjoyed pride of place in the Oval Office during President Bush's tenure.
But when British officials offered to let Mr Obama to hang onto the bust for a further four years, the White House said: "Thanks, but no thanks."
I'm with the Big O here. It's nothing against Sir Winnie of course. In fact, if you folks should be mad about anything, you should be mad that your greatest national leader was, by right-wing hack propagandists, put on the same plane as the nincompoop we had running this country for eight years. That was an insult to Churchill's legacy as a war leader.
Obama doesn't want to be "America's Churchill," and I say bully for him. That isn't what we need. In fact, an Attlee bust would be rather more apposite, in many ways, except that Attlee didn't turn out to be all that great shakes at the end of the day.
How about Gladstone, your first great Liberal PM? Or Lord Grey -- didn't he push through the Reform Act of 1832 or something? Who else?
Jengis and FinD: I already know you're going to say Chamberlain. Yuk yuk yuk.
