From S.W., the Economist:  My colleague in this space last week delightfully dismembered Dinesh D'Souza’s nutty Forbes piece “analyzing” Mr Obama’s worldview and thought processes, but the fact remains that this administration does seem to view our old European allies with general disdain.

Yesterday, in a bold gambit to secure a progressive Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition, Gordon Brown announced his resignation as prime minister and party leader.  He failed.  All signs point to an imminent power sharing arrangement between the plurality winning Conservatives and the third place Lib Dems.  

As expected, yesterday's UK elections resulted in a hung parliament, with the  Tories falling short of an outright majority needed to form a government on their own.  While Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats wound up in distant third, they're now in the driver's seat.

We've known for more than a year that Gordon Brown and his party were in trouble.  But the surprisingly strong performance of Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg in the first debate has changed the dynamic so much that Labour could come in third.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed along with his wife and several senior government and military leaders in a plane crash just hours ago.  This is a tremendous tragedy for the people of Poland and the entire transatlantic community.

U.S. President Barack Obama is so beloved in Europe that he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize (which he later won) just 12 days after taking office for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples." 

The magnitude of the win of Angela Merkel's coalition, coming on the heels of a center-right romp in the recent European Parliament elections and the ouster of several socialist-leaning governments in recent months, has spawned much hand-wringing about the decline of Europe's Left.

The Telegraph blares the headline "Barack Obama rebuffs Gordon Brown as 'special relationship' sinks to new low" over a piece alleging relations have gotten frosty since the Lockerbie bomber was released.  Brown says this is nonsense.