{"id":4637,"date":"2008-07-26T14:01:10","date_gmt":"2008-07-26T14:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/\/?p=4637"},"modified":"2008-07-26T14:01:10","modified_gmt":"2008-07-26T14:01:10","slug":"microphone-picks-up-private-conversation-between-obama-and-british-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/?p=4637","title":{"rendered":"Microphone Picks Up Private Conversation Between Obama and British Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"content-image-wrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/obama_cameron-150x150.jpg\" class=\"content-image-block\" alt=\"image\" style=\"max-width: 100%; height: auto; display: block; margin: 15px auto;\" \/><\/div>\n<p> <i>If this is all I would ever say when I don&#8217;t know that a microphone is recording me, I would be very happy. The relatively tame headline on ABC News &#8220;Microphone Picks Up Private Conversation Between Obama and British Leader on Need for Vacations and &#8216;Thinking&#8217; Time&#8221; was dramatized by the Drudgereport  to &#8220;BAM AND CAM: Private Obama Chat with Tory Leader Caught on Mic&#8230;&#8216;You should be on the beach&#8230; You need a break&#8221; and then picked up by newspapers around the world as if Obama had a Ronald Reagan moment (Reagan joked he had already given a command to send nuclear bombs to the Soviet Union]. Reading the Drudgereport headline I am  thinking, &#8220;Oh, my God, Obama must be totally worn out.&#8221; <\/i><\/p>\n<p>July 26, 2008 8:40 AM<\/p>\n<p>At British Parliament today, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, met with Tory Leader David Cameron.<\/p>\n<p>Seemingly unaware of an enormous fuzzy boom mike held by ABC News&#8217; Eric Kerchner, the two chatted casually&#8212;and privately.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You should be on the beach,&#8221; Cameron told Obama. &#8220;You need a break. Well, you need to be able to keep your head together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got to refresh yourself,&#8221; agreed Obama.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do you have a break at all?&#8221; asked Cameron.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have not,&#8221; said Obama. &#8220;I am going to take a week in August. But I agree with you that somebody, somebody who had worked in the White House who&#8212;not Clinton himself, but somebody who had been close to the process&#8212; said that, should we be successful, that actually the most important thing you need to do is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you&#8217;re doing is thinking. And the biggest mistake that a lot of these folks make is just feeling as if you have to be&#8212;&#8220;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These guys just chalk your diary up,&#8221; said Cameron, referring to a packed schedule.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Right,&#8221; Obama said. &#8220;In 15 minute increments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If this is all I would ever say when I don&#8217;t know that a microphone is recording me, I would be very happy. The relatively <a href=\"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/?p=4637\" class=\"read-more-link\">[Read More]<\/a> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/obama_cameron.jpg\" alt=\"image\" width=\"200\" height=\"143\" \/><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}