Gordon Brown was never accorded such a warm welcome in Washington by George Bush or the current US president
US presidents have gone to great lengths over the years to massage British sensitivities over the Anglo-American special relationship. Franklin Delano Roosevelt once put up with a champagne-swilling Winston Churchill wandering round the White House in the nude, to name just one example.
On Tuesday, Barack Obama followed in that tradition, in spirit at least, as he rolled out the proverbial red carpet for David Cameron, even giving the prime minister a lift on board Air Force One to watch a college basketball game in Ohio.
In fact Cameron, who will be formally welcomed to the United States this morning with a 19-gun salute on the south lawn of the White House, is being accorded the grandest welcome of any world leader in Washington this year.
Obama is pushing the boundaries of protocol. As a head of government, Cameron can't be accorded the status of a full state visit. But the ever-imaginative protocol office of the White House has found a way around the rules by designating the trip as an official visit with a state dinner.
Gordon Brown was never accorded such a warm welcome in Washington by George Bush or Obama. One of Brown's worst moments as prime minister came when frantic lobbying to meet Obama on the margins of the UN general assembly led to no more than a "brush by" – the White House term for a brief meeting – in a kitchen of a New York hotel. One Downing Street source said: "I think we can say this visit is gearing up to be better than a brush by in a kitchen."
Cameron, who is sensitive about being photographed in public in black tie, will put on his finest outfit for tonight's state dinner at the White House, which he will attend in the company of his wife, Samantha. The president and prime minister hope to celebrate the depth of Anglo-American relations with a 280-strong cast list of leading lights from the worlds of art, business and design.
Hugh Bonneville, who is becoming well known to US television viewers as the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey, will be one of the star attractions. Sir Jonathan Ive, the man credited as one of the main brains behind the iPhone, iPad and iPod, will show that Britain plays a quiet role in helping to shape what Americans often regard as their achievements.
Obama, who has shown himself to be something of an accomplished crooner, has invited John Legend, one of his favourite soul singers, to perform. Downing Street, meanwhile, has invited Mumford & Sons, the public school-educated rock folk band, who happen to be popular in the US. That appeared to be more of a Sam Cam, than a Dave, idea.
Cameron's relationship with the US has not been all plain sailing. Some Tories were surprised when the prime minister appeared to show a lack of sensitivity about US sensitivities over 9/11 when he used a speech on the fifth anniversary of the attacks to criticise military action. He said that liberty "cannot be dropped from the air by an unmanned drone".
The prime minister defends the speech which, to him, symbolised a fresh approach to the special relationship. He said that Britain should be prepared to raise its concerns with the US, as Margaret Thatcher often did with Ronald Reagan. Speaking en route to the US, he said: "We shouldn't have to take [the] temperature [of the special relationship] all the time. Sometimes we can over-analyse how many phone calls and how many meetings, but I don't look at it like that. President Obama's approach is deeply rational and reasonable, and also very strong." Downing Street accepts that Britain and the US will never be equal partners. But they believe Britain need not be subservient to the US because the relationship can work both ways.
The visit to the basketball game in Ohio showed that a British prime minister can come in handy for a US president. It will have done no harm to Obama's election hopes to have been pictured with a conservative leader in the key swing state. But the prime minister had to do his homework as he brushed up on "bracketology" ahead of his visit to "March Madness", the knockout college basketball competition. Obama has described "bracketology", where punters predict the performance of basketball teams, as a national pastime.
Amid all the pomp and ceremony and high politics, there was the odd light momenton Tuesday. Cameron had to contain his giggles when he was welcomed to Blair House, the US government's guest house for overseas heads of governments, by Randy Bumgardner, the US assistant chief of protocol.