A very “special relationship”

“Gordon” and “Barack” — a bromance blossoms at the G20.

The two leaders spent the morning in private and expanded talks, then emerged — with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in tow, surprise! — for a joint press conference and general display of avuncular bonhomie. Any disagreements over, say, stimulus or whatevs were all waved off and downplayed. The body language,the unrestrained grinning, the first-name basis, jokes about working out — it’s like Bush and Tony Blair all over again (but with charts and graphs). Gift kerfuffle over!

“President Obama, you have given renewed hope not only to the citizens of the United States of America, but to all citizens in all part of the world,” Brown told the president. “Your first 70 days in office have changed America, and you’ve changed America’s relationship with the world.”

It is, as both leaders repeated, a very “special relationship.”

Obama: “So that would be point number one.”

The president was asked by a British reporter to weigh in on England’s chances at the World Cup, to state what he likes best about Great Britain, and what advice he might give Brown, epically unpopular and criticized within his own party, who is facing a tough re-election.

“I have had enough trouble back home picking my brackets for the college basketball tournament that’s taking place there — called March Madness — stirred up all kinds of controversy,” Obama said. “The last thing I’m going to do is wade into European football. That would be a mistake. I didn’t get a briefing on that, but I sense that would be a mistake.”

The thing he likes best about the UK? The people. Oh, and the Queen, he added later. Obama and the first lady are going to Buckingham Palace later today for a private audience.

“As you might imagine,” the president said, “Michelle has been really thinking that through.”

Stimulus solved: Obama gestures at the prime minister’s wallet.

The president blamed an overzealous press for overplaying conflict among the G20 leaders — notably, the general reluctance to follow Obama’s lead on government spending as a catalyst for growth.

“I know that when you’ve got a bunch of heads of state talking, it’s not visually that interesting and it you know, the communiqués are written in sort of dry language,” Obama said. “So there’s a great desire to inject some conflict and some drama into the occasion.”

Actually, some of the drama was coming from the direction of France, where President Nicolas Sarkozy was threatening to walk out of the economic summit if it came up short on his expectations for regulatory reform and other measures.

“I will not associate myself with a summit that would end with a communique made of false compromises that would not tackle the issues that concern us,” Sarkozy said, offstage.

Asked about that, Brown issued a verbal eye-roll, saying, “I’m confident that President Sarkozy will not only be here for the first course of our dinner, but will still be sitting as we complete our dinner this evening.”

 Brown: Congratulations, you did it without a Teleprompter!

Asked about his impending meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Obama said a key area for discussion is reducing both countries’ nuclear weapons stash. Obama has never met Medvedev, but said they’ve been talking on the phone and exchanging letters.

“One of the things that I’ve always believed strongly is that both the United States and Russia and other nuclear powers will be in a much stronger position to strengthen what has become a somewhat fragile, threadbare nonproliferation treaty if we are leading by example and if we can take serious steps to reduce the nuclear arsenal, “Obama said. “What better project to start off than seeing if we can make progress on that front? I think we can.”

(cue Cheney’s head exploding)

Brown capped off their meeting by acknowledging Clinton and “Secretary of State Geithner,” wishing them well in all they do.

Obama: “When you come here there’s that sense of familiarity, as well as difference.”

(all photos ap/reuters)