His task was to get a little best buddies thing going with the stiffly anonymous--and conservative--PM of the UK, David Cameron. So: why not a little ride on the very impressive Air Force One, with lots of informal time to talk? That worked--they talked the whole trip. Check.
The destination was an NCAA tournament basketball game--Cameron had never seen b-ball, so it's a good story, too, and something for him to talk about at home. There were several possible venues--why not the one in Ohio? It might have crossed somebody's mind that Ohio is an important state in the 2012 election-- no GOPer has won the presidency without winning Ohio. And so at halftime the President tells the local press,"Sometimes when we have foreign visitors, they're only visiting the coasts. They go to New York, they go to Washington, they go to Los Angeles, but the heartland is what it's all about." So what's the headline in the Dayton newspaper? The Heartland is What It's All About. Check.
So far it's smart diplomacy and smart politics. But here's where the luck comes in: the game that President Obama and PM Cameron saw. Western Kentucky, the decided underdog, was down by 16 points with five minutes to go. They won the game by one point with a full court press and clutch shooting in "the most fantastic 5-minute finish in NCAA tournament history." So it becomes a game that Cameron and Ohio--not to mention Western Kentucky--will have imprinted on their memories. Check: three point play.
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