It was god save the queen. The national anthem. I don't see how the queen had any choice but to do what she did, and I doubt Obama would have soldiered on if it was the Star spangled banner.

The band absolutely started too soon as you say but this was certainly as much a screw up for Obama.

I love the guy but that was painful to watch.

First, "the star spangled banner" doesn't sound like a musical accompaniment to anything. "Let Freedom Ring" definitely does (hell, he could've assumed they were playing THAT version lol).

Second, if he'd cut himself off after "To her Majesty, the Queen. To the vitality—", it's absolutely certain that the right wingers would've complained about him "sucking up to the throne", or "respecting their national anthem more than ours", or some other such nonsense.

God save the queen is unmistakable for anything else. Hell I am not british and it is unmistakable to me.

Like I said I love the guy and it certainly wasn't his fault the band stepped on his toast but the queen did exactly what she should have. The idea she would disrespect her own national anthem for Obamas sake is pretty silly.

Having said that who cares what the wingers think Obama isn't running anymore.

And so did she--she could hardly poke him in the ribs to make him stop. From this clip, anyway, they both seemed to pretend all was well, and so they should have done.

It's too bad the band started up, but that's 100% on the conductor, not on him. (And so what. People make mistakes.) He and everyone else had the grace to notice something had gone wrong and not to take a drink until the band was done. Well done him. And well done her and well done everybody for not making it a thing about the mistake of the conductor, which, again, big whoop. It's not like anybody died or even got a splinter.

Honestly, the things the anti-Obama people will jump on; I doubt his critics are monarchists, anyway. It's not as though he invaded a country for no reason.

(Plus--the title of the anthem is "God Save the Queen." He was praising her... if anything was appropriate to say during the music, it was the kind of things he said.)

At least he didn't puke on the Japanese Prime Minister.

Nice one.

The guy is so suave he puts Fred Astaire and Cary Grant to shame. One misstep is not going to ruin relations with Queen Elizabeth, who at age 90 has seen just about everything.

Remember when Dubya was at the Olympics in Beijing? There were some unforgettable photos of him looking drunk as a skunk.

While this is not a deal, I will say that there are time that Obama has a bit of the absent minded professor about him. He's so good at winging it, and frankly has so little time to prepare for formalities when his job is about managing whole economies and security protocols, that some times he just seems like he doesn't get the point of formalities. That's okay. I kind of prefer a prez who's not in his element among royalty and the Riches.