Who Will Attend the Wedding at Buckingham Palace?

On this Thanksgiving day, we could have talked about Sarah Palin’s new gaffe when, as a guest on Glenn Beck’s radio program — the man who stirs up paranoia and deliberately misinforms his 2.5 million daily listeners — she talked about “our North Korean allies.”

We also could have talked about the conviction of Tom DeLay, the former Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, for “money laundering” of campaign finances in order to skirt Texas law. DeLay, nicknamed “The Hammer” for his very own way of maintaining unit cohesion within the House, is facing between five and 99 years in prison. Happy Thanksgiving, Tom! Sentencing is set for Dec. 20.

We could have talked about Bristol Palin’s loss on the “Dancing With the Stars” finale on ABC. But we are going to talk about a serious matter: the wedding at Buckingham Palace.*

It is the question of the day — it is more important than knowing who the 44th president will pick to take Larry Summer’s place as economic advisor: Which member of Obama’s family will go to England next spring to attend William’s wedding?

According to a CBS source in Buckingham Palace, Michelle Obama would be on the guest list, but the president would stay home.

In these times of populist revolt, the president’s trip to attend a prince’s wedding would be politically unacceptable. Americans already had a hard time accepting Michelle’s vacation in Spain last summer. Barack Obama’s attendance at the wedding at the Queen’s palace would be the last straw, especially since the wedding will take place when the White House seriously starts setting up the POTUS’ re-election campaign. David Axelrod will quit his position of political advisor at the White House at the end of January — right after the State of the Union address — to go back to Chicago and prepare for the re-election campaign. He will be replaced by David Plouffe, the architect of the 2008 victory.

In short, at the time when everything is put in place to capture a second term, making a mistake by showing himself with the royals is out of the question.

*Editor’s Note: The wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton is scheduled for April 29, 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London.