Okay, let's appreciate courteously the "Bore da" we got out of Barack Obama this morning but it would have been even better to get a "Rydw i'n Cymro", equivalent to "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a Berliner"), as President Kennedy famously said in 1963.
One of the vital functions of this Blog is to flush out famous people from around the world as actually being Welsh.
It is now a familiar ritual when recent American presidents have been elected (Obama included) to flag up their Irish origins and then send a film crew to a remote bar in County Mayo or wherever and interview some of its worse-for-wear and bewildered denizens about their famous scion. But what about Wales?
I am pleased to be able to report that the President is in fact Welsh - proved by close examination of the family tree of his maternal grandmother. Quite a lot less Welsh than, say, the admirable Welsh King of England Henry VII (who wasn't all that Welsh strictly speaking, except in surname, appearance, and temperament) but Welsh for all that.
Meanwhile I see in my copy of The Washington Post this morning that they have helpfully offered some useful Welsh phrases for the President to deploy including...
Does dim dwywaith amdani, dim 'sgidiau ar y tir
("Make no mistake, no boots on the ground")
I took this photo while driving inside NATO's massive security stockade in Cardiff - before they closed the gates!
