When you're too busy to accept an award...

One question I have is...what has he done to qualify to win this award? Is it like the Nobel prize he won for talking a lot so that people might think about stuff more? You can imagine my lack of shock considering the past on the application of "smart diplomacy" and "restoring our standing in the world" which apparently means insulting our allies and apologizing to our enemies. I saw kids who did this in grade school. It got them beat up and friendless. Read the original here.

Barack Obama Snubs British Scientists By Refusing To Receive Royal Society Medal

But Mr Obama’s aides responded to the invitation with a “very short” note in which they said the president would rather spend time at a south London state school.

Mr Obama visited The Globe Academy in Southwark with David Cameron, the Prime Minister, on Tuesday.

The two leaders swapped a number of high-fives with pupils before rolling up their sleeves for a game of table tennis against two schoolboys.

A British government source close to the Obama visit said: “The Royal Society was really keen to do something with Obama and they expected him to be very honoured by the medal.

“Instead they received a very short response from his people saying that it would be better for him to visit a state school.

“The inference they took from that was that he was more interested in cultivating his street cred than in building links with British scientists.”

Bill Hartnett, the Royal Soctiety’s communications chief, confirmed that the offer had been rejected but insisted that no offence had been taken.

He said: “There were some early discussions about whether the visit was an opportunity for him to come to the society and meet some of the UK’s brightest and best young scientists as well as some of our fellows.

“We also discussed giving him the King Charles II Medal which is presented to heads of state.

“We put it to the Department of Business who sounded out his people and we were told it wasn’t possible.

“We were not offended. The idea was in its early stages so there was never any real expectation of it happening.”

Had Mr Obama accepted the invitation, he would have been greeted by Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, who won a Nobel prize in 2001 for advances in genetics and cell biology.

Instead he met pupils at the Globe Academy who had won an award for designing a lunchbox which folds out into a plate.