Harper's White House greeting an "unbelievable insult and snub": Beltway insider

[daleo]

As Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived at the White House this morning for a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Canadian all-news networks were carrying the event live. On CTV News Channel, anchor Dan Matheson watched the incoming pictures with Mark Plotkin, the political commentator and analyst for WTOP Radio in Washington and a long-time Beltway insider. Here's my rough transcript of the conversation, as aired, between Plotkin and Matheson:


Matheson: Mr. Plotkin, I take it that it matters who greets you at the White House. I didn't see Barack Obama there as Stephen Harper was being ushered in.

Plotkin: I'm not being hyperbolic or inflammatory but I thought it was an unbelievable insult and snub. If you are - quote - important, the president comes out and greets you as you depart from the car and ushers you in.

I am supposed to know something about American politics, and believe me, I do not know who the woman was who greeted .

I tried to find out and I was told by the national security press advisor that supposedly that was the deputy chief of protocol, not the chief of protocol of the state department.

... I don't know if it was deliberate or accidental, but it surely was not a symbolic gesture of friendship and it was really, in my mind, demeaning.

http://davidakin.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2009/9/16/4323388.html
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When Obama looks at Harper, I think he sees a "birther/teabagger".