Obama and Berlusconi's "Cordial Phone Call"

A few hours after the gaffe of Silvio Berlusconi on Barack Obama’s “tan,” the new American president joined the first international summit on the phone, calling the leaders of nine countries that are friends and allies, among which Italy was not one of them. Accused of the blow, Palazzo Chigi began a recovery in diplomatic negotiations that led to a phone call between Obama and Berlusconi that took place late yesterday evening, during which time he reiterated “friendship and cooperation” between the two countries, and decided to meet at the G8 meeting.

It all started on Thursday afternoon, Chicago time, when Obama discussed the financial crisis – and also Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea and climate – by returning calls to the leaders that had sent congratulations for his election. Hence the conversations were with the heads of government of Australia, Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico and South Korea. The longest conversation was with French Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the EU, who for about 30 minutes talked about economy, while Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown discussed Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea. The Israeli Ehud Olmert warned Obama about the risk of appearing weak “if he wanted to open up to Tehran.” The Canadian Harper asked whether Obama would be at the G20 summit in Washington and he responded negatively. Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for Obama, was limited to making known the list of leaders called while the essential was to know the contents. The first day of international diplomacy was marked by the letter of congratulations from Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to which Obama said that he answered back “in an appropriate manner.” Each of the nine leaders who called had been prepared on the basis of the memo of the foreign policy task force that Gregory Craig, the next possible Security Adviser, coordinated on the 11th floor of 233 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Noticing that it was excluded from a round of Obama’s international consultations, the Italian government pressed Barack’s team entrusting the task to the Ambassador to Washington, Gianni Castellaneta who after Election Day was to pass on the congratulations from Italy to the winner. Castellaneta had spoken several times with Rahm Emanuel, new Chief of Staff, and Craig came to agree on a phone call between the two leaders in which they reaffirmed “friendship and cooperation.” Obama called Berlusconi at the end of the press conference in Chicago. The conversation lasted 20 minutes and the premier said he was “happy and moved” for the historic election victory, speaking of “great expectations for the new presidency.” The two leaders then spoke of the G8 in June in Italy. “I will be the oldest around this table,” said Berlusconi. A few hours earlier, in order to smooth the tension that had accumulated because of the sun tanning remark, Castellaneta gave an interview to CNN explaining that “this was a way of highlighting the beauty of a person that is used in Italy.”

The absence of the phone calls in Italy on Thursday evening was not motivated by Obama’s spokesperson but democratic circles in Washington showed certain surprise for the words spoken in Moscow by the President of the Council, widely reported by the media in the United States. “Maybe someone should tell Berlusconi that the Americans have elected a new president, making him notice that an African- American cannot suntan” said Sidney Blumenthal, former adviser to Clinton, that “Berlusconi’s blunder is finished in the files of the team Obama real-time” due to the fact that young officials in charge of foreign policy work 24 hours over 24, especially on the web, cataloging all information. Joseph Cirincione is an expert on nuclear proliferation who heard a lot from Democrats, and for him “the gaffe should have made Berlusconi appear to the Obama team as very confused in front of the outcome of the polls. The few indiscretions that are filtered from Chicago come from the young blood of Obama, who asks for anonymity, and suggests that “in these situations Barack” reacts by “putting on a big smile and ignoring the story from which nothing good can come” while acting as one “who never forgets anything.”