US:IT WAS a case of the British prime minister Gordon Brown hedging his bets yesterday as, one by one, the three candidates for the White House trooped into the British embassy in Washington to meet him. Anxious to show no bias, he gave each of them 45 minutes and met them in alphabetical order, based on forenames.
It was a coup for Mr Brown that they should take time out from campaigning, and for a man whose three-day visit to the US has been overshadowed by the Pope being in town at the same time, it was an important piece of symbolism. For him, it was about staking a claim to be best friend of the next president. For them, it was a useful photo opportunity to establish their foreign policy credentials.
The most important meeting was with Barack Obama, not only because he is favourite to win the Democratic nomination but because he is the only candidate Mr Brown had not met before. It also offered an opportunity to exorcise a mix-up last year when Mr Brown turned down a chance to meet him, before the senator's campaign gained momentum.
Mr Brown opened the meeting with a discussion about Churchill. When Mr Obama was shown into the study he noticed a portrait of the wartime leader. The senator pointed out he had sat in the "Churchill chair" that dominates the entrance to No 10 Downing Street when he visited Tony Blair soon after being elected to the Senate in 2002.
Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the ambassador, spent weeks choreographing the meetings to ensure that the British prime minister remained scrupulously neutral in the presidential contest. Mr Brown had a 15-minute break between each meeting to allow the candidates to slip in and out without any awkward encounters.
Mr Obama arrived at 9am. Mr Brown, to ensure he was up to speed with the issues, watched Mr Obama and Hillary Clinton's debate in Philadelphia on Wednesday night on television.
With polite chit-chat out of the way, Mr Brown turned to more important issues. Mr Obama has promised to withdraw all US combat troops from Iraq by December 2009, meet the Iranian leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and shift US strategy from a military emphasis to international development.
And, in between a discussion of the issues of the day, they also shared their experience in facing up to the shared challenge of being in politics while trying to bring up small children. After the meeting, London expressed delight at how it had gone. Mr Obama said he looked forward to working with Mr Brown.
Ms Clinton breezed in at 10am. This was a meeting of old friends; they have known each other for the best part of two decades. He opened his discussion with small talk about Wales. Ms Clinton has a Welsh background. They then ran over much the same issues.
Once Ms Clinton left, to resume campaigning in Pennsylvania, it was John McCain's turn, arriving at 11am. While Mr McCain is a Republican and has criticised the drawdown of UK troops in Iraq, the two men have struck up a rapport.
Mr McCain is a hawk on foreign policy, favouring remaining in Iraq for years and adopting a bellicose tone towards Iran, but he breaks with President Bush on issues such as climate change.
With Mr McCain's departure, Mr Brown headed for the White House to see the current president.