Guardian (UK):
Senior diplomats in Brussels said last night the cancellation was a big embarrassment for the EU, which had hoped to increase its standing on the world stage when it ended a decade of debate about its institutional architecture with the ratification of the Lisbon treaty in December...The decision by Obama to skip the Madrid summit is a sign that the promise of a more international approach from the US is being overtaken by pressing domestic concerns.Obama wants to be seen to be spending more time in the US dealing with domestic issues particularly after the Democrats' surprise defeat in Massachusetts last month. There were a series of diplomatic exchanges overnight yesterday after officials in Europe read about the decision on media websites.José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister who holds the title of president in office during Spain's six-month presidency of the EU (and host of the meeting)... who is scheduled to visit Washington this week, was described as angry and embarrassed.José Antonio Alonso, the governing Socialist party's spokesman in the Spanish parliament and close ally of Zapatero, said: "I think the US administration is and must be aware of what Europe is."
I thought he'd be there to at-least check out the chicks and have has his posterior licked by socialists, but the specter of comprehensive political collapse has him spooked into staying-put in DC for awhile. That, and perhaps he's afraid of any more European fans turning on him... Sarkozy already has, while it's rumored frenemies Obama and Merkel only smile for the cameras.
Simon Tisdall -also writing at the Guardian- has Obama's obscene spending and lack of leadership endangering the entire western world's security -here-