Wed, 18 Nov 2009 2:13p.m.
By Jeremy Elwood
After the disappointment of missing out on a private meeting with Barack Obama in Singapore last weekend, John Key has received an invitation to officially visit the White House in March next year.
This could be interesting. You may remember back in September, Key gave an interview to the Financial Times of London in which he compared himself to Obama, citing that he too was “not institutionalised”.
One can only imagine how the meeting might go:
Interior – The Oval Office.
John Key: Good afternoon Mr President.
Barack Obama: John, good to see you. My apologies about Singapore, but as you’ll understand, last year was pretty hectic.
JK: Of course. I should know, I also had to take over from a controversial predecessor, try and reunite a nation, inspire a disaffected electorate…
BO: Sort out two wars, an economic collapse, a legacy of eight years of civil rights violations…
JK: Well, for us it was more superannuation and smacking kids. But sure, I get you.
BO: Then there were the Republicans, the right wing media and people bringing guns to my town hall meetings.
JK: Yep, similar stuff for me. I’ve got a finance minister who thinks he’s a TV star, and a TV star who thinks she’s my environment minister.
BO: It doesn’t get any easier, does it? I’ve been up all night trying to figure out what to do about Afghanistan. You know how complicated these kind of things can be.
JK: You bet! At home we have, well, um… Fiji has been kind of annoying.
BO: And then I have to go back on the late night talk shows again tonight. Sometimes my charisma and eloquence can be such a hassle.
JK: I was on Letterman myself.
BO: You were? Good for you, did Dave ask any tricky questions?
JK: Questions? I just read the Top Ten List.
BO: Oh.
JK: Yeah. Anyhoo, how are things now? Public treating you well?
BO: Oh, you know. Living up to the whole hope and change thing has been tough, and of course there’s still the underlying racism in many parts of the country.
JK: I hear that.
BO: You do?
JK: Oh yeah. See, technically, I’m Jewish.
BO: Really?
JK: Sort of. Look, I don’t want to keep you, and if I get back to the airport early I might be able to get an upgrade, so…
BO: You don’t have your own plane?
JK: Not so much. So what I wanted to ask you, now that we’ve finally met… could we get a free trade agreement?
BO: No.
JK: Right.
BO: Anything else?
JK: Could you sign my copy of The Audacity Of Hope?