Obama Off Form, Brown Basks (UK)

We now know the form with these events: British PM pays deferential homage to the American president, who repays the compliment with warm words for the special ties the US feels for Britain. The dynamic is usually clear: the Brit is grateful simply to be standing next to the most powerful man in the world. He is yapping spaniel; the American is top dog.

Occasionally, that alters. When Tony Blair visited Bill Clinton in early 1998, the latter was mired in the Monica Lewinsky scandal – he needed Blair there calling him "friend". George W Bush, too, found he needed Blair, chiefly because the PM could explain Bush's war on terror more articulately than Bush could.

Wednesday's joint press conference of Gordon Brown and Barack Obama had no such dynamic at work: Obama remains the global superstar with a fresh mandate, Brown the ailing prime minister with anemic poll numbers whose last victory in a competitive election was for his Kirkcaldy seat.

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