But the final straw, for many fans, came two months later. While Liverpool played its key game of the year — a Champions League clash with Arsenal — Hicks stayed home in Texas to watch the Rangers on opening day. “I would never miss our home opener,” he was quoted as saying, “but I will have the Liverpool game on my TV.” That, of course, drove Liverpool fans bananas.
None of this, clearly, rises to the level of a foreign-policy crisis, of course. But it is indicative of a clash of cultures — of which Obama should be aware. Having lived in Europe recently, I can attest to the fact that most Europeans do like individual Americans (though not President Bush). But when they think about the United States, what does tend to irritate them is the arrogance of some Americans who convey the idea that everything stars-and-stripes is superior.
European soccer — especially in Liverpool — is something close to a sacred rite. What Bush buddy Hicks has done is akin to walking into a church, lighting a cigarette, and cracking open a beer. Note to Obama: the best way to reach out to our British friends and improve Anglo-American relations would be to get Hicks to sell the team.
ODDS
JOHN MCCAIN
Odds: 6-7 | this past week: same
BARACK OBAMA
Odds: 7-6 | this past week: same
Related:
The amazing race, Rhode Island: Vote for Obama, Arlen the Family, More 
- The amazing race
For the past year, presidential politics has been building to the crescendo that is the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
- Rhode Island: Vote for Obama
The 2008 election is guaranteed to enjoy a special place in history.
- Arlen the Family
So, Arlen Specter is now a Democrat. That's old news.
- Robert McNamara, RIP
As secretary of defense under President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara prosecuted the Vietnam War on a day-to-day basis, just as Donald Rumsfeld orchestrated the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for George W. Bush.
- California’s shame
The politics of division as practiced by lame-duck president George W. Bush at the connivance of his onetime Svengali Karl Rove are not dead.
- Right-wing terror
Conservatives scoffed in April when the Department of Homeland Security warned that the United States could face another wave of homegrown attacks.
- Ford and the USA
Many of the thoughts recently expressed about Gerald R. Ford’s presidency remind your superior correspondents of just how dangerously far to the right this country has veered.
- On the national affront
Where does one begin to recap 12 months of such willful self-parody?
- Trapped in Iraq
Watching the Senate Armed Services and the Foreign Relations Committees question Iraq proconsul General David Petraeus about the status of the war was a disturbing experience.
- Gold muddle
President Bush’s decision to score a historical footnote and be the first sitting US president to attend an overseas Olympic Games seemed like a good idea at the time.
- Mod on the move
The Brown University class being taught this semester by Lincoln Chafee, the Republican US senator-turned-independent supporter of Barack Obama, has an up-to-the-moment title: “Whither America.”
- Less
Topics:
Stark Ravings
, Barack Obama, Elections and Voting, NHL Western Conference, More
, Barack Obama, Elections and Voting, NHL Western Conference, NFC South Division, Texas Rangers, Arsenal FC, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Manchester United FC, Chelsea FC, Liverpool FC, Less
