There are a lot of diplomatic niceties that Presidents and their staff ought to be aware of. The Brits took this as an insult. Intended or not, we ought to go out of our way not to offend people over silliness.
I don't think the Obama Administration is aware of the concept of "signals". The Brit Press understands them and will give Obama the normal respect it gives politicians (SFA).
The higher political decision makers will avoid commenting, leading Obama to assume they understand him. They will, but it'll be "this Obama chappie: not pukka, you know"
Could all end in tears, and I don't think Obama is capable of realising it
Et dona ferentes IN EXTENDED observation of the ways and works of man,
From the Four-mile Radius roughly to the Plains of Hindustan:
I have drunk with mixed assemblies, seen the racial ruction rise,
And the men of half Creation damning half Creation's eyes.
I have watched them in their tantrums, all that Pentecostal crew,
French, Italian, Arab, Spaniard, Dutch and Greek, and Russ and Jew,
Celt and savage, buff and ochre, cream and yellow, mauve and white,
But it never really mattered till the English grew polite;
.....>- Rudyard Kipling
(Two years later there was still tension between Britain and the United States. See Kipling’s letter to Charles Eliot Norton of 16 August 1897 [Letters Vol 2, Ed. Pinney], which quotes an editorial from the Spectator of 14 August 1897 which argued that American political leaders, not the American public, were distinctly hostile towards England and were exploiting the ignorant patriotism of the country. The editorial repeated the line which with which Kipling closed “Et Dona Ferentes”:
‘But oh, beware my country when my country grows polite’. )