Downing Street Says » US Election

» Wednesday, November 5, 2008

US Election

Asked whether the Prime Minister thought it was time for a novice, the Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that he assumed the journalist s question referred to the election of Barack Obama and that the Prime Minister had given his views on the election this morning.

Asked whether the Prime Minister had been able to call the President Elect, the PMS said that the Prime Minister, as he had said this morning, had written to President Elect Obama to congratulate him on his election victory. They hoped to be able to speak in the next few days if possible. It had not been possible so far today due to the time difference.

Asked if there was any possibility that the Prime Minister would meet with the President Elect when he visited Washington, the PMS replied that who was invited to the Washington meeting was a matter for the current administration.

Asked if the Prime Minister stayed up to watch the election unfold, the PMS said the Prime Minister had not stayed up to watch the results having returned from the Gulf last night. As people knew, the Prime Minister had very young children so he was normally up quite early in the morning, so that was when he found out the result. Asked if there was any protocol for meeting the President Elect, the PMS advised people to see what happened over the weeks and months ahead. Asked if the Prime Minister was up in time to see the acceptance speech, the PMS said that he didn t think he was, but the Prime Minister would obviously have seen the repeats and highlights of that.

Asked if the Government had a view on whether it would be sensible for the President Elect to attend the Washington meeting, the PMS repeated that it was our view that it was really for the US administration to decide who represented the United States on these occasions. As people knew, the President was the President until his term in office had finished.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.