Obama gave this toast to Queen Elizabeth II and guests at a state banquet at Buckingham Palace Tuesday. After the president took a long pause, the orchestra starting playing presumably too soon, causing an awkward moment at the elegant dinner.
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One of the tricks of monarchic protocol is to make it obscure enough to catch guests and make them feel lesser beings. That's the idea of monachy! Make everybody else feel lesser beings!
This is also about cross-cultures. Two persons were expecting diffrent things from the same event (check http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052MGKBY).
The Queen gives a cold shoulder to President Obama for breaking protocol offering a toast to Herself while they are playing HER SONG: 'God Save the Queen', of course.
Buckingham Palace entrapped the President by allowing the band to start early but the Queen should not have ignored a sincere offer of a toast by the US president, after all she's the copyright owner of the track.
An insult to all Americans. The Queen allowed Obama to suffer in silence his personal opprobrium. No way to treat a guest.
In the case of the Queen and other lesser royals when you have nothing to do all day pomp, protocol and etiquette becomes the only activity they care about.
So when somebody doesn't follow the 'rule' (their rule) they go cold not knowing what to do. The last time they did something trivial and intuitive was when they were born.
In the case of Obama he probably thought the music was a addition to the great words he was uttering. Like in a Hollywood movie. it was his Oscar bid.
In short, they were both thinking a lot about themselves at the time.
Americans should stay clear of Monarchy. It is stupid to pander to it for votes in America. Americas should feel proud of their history. After all, weren't the 'French-speaking French' that took American's side during Independence?
The best of America is that we are not a bunch of elitist royals obsessed with 'etiquette' - so a few privileged rulers can be separated from the many underprivileged.
A great Queen would've acted swiftly and toasted. A sad moment for democracy. As usual.
The BBC and many networks including US ones at first did not make any mention of the gaffe in their main news programmes. Some did menion it but did not show the president's face after the snub.
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