The Queen And I

President and Michelle Obama recently visited the Queen of England in Buckingham Palace. Although the event obviously took place in England, for me it was yet another “only in America” event. In what other country could Michelle and Barack Obama come from where they were born and raised and end up visiting the Queen? If you used that time machine you have in the garage, and went back a few decades and were driving through the South Side of Chicago or the streets of Honolulu, and you pointed to young Michelle and/or young Barack and you told your passenger, “Some day he (or she) is going to have a private audience with Queen Elizabeth,” you would have been put away faster than you could say, “totally delusional.” But there they were in Buckingham palace.

We Americans probably have even more affection for the institution of the British monarchy than the Brits themselves. We wouldn