PRAGUE — When President Barack Obama arrives here in the Czech Republic late tonight for a meeting aimed at forging closer transatlantic relations, aides say he has opted for a romantic private dinner with the first lady. That rather than a glass of Czech beer with Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who last week invoked Satan’s lair to characterize the U.S. president’s economic policies.
The first couple also will forgo an official state dinner with Vaclav Klaus, the fiery Czech president. Klaus will have to settle for a short meeting with Obama on Sunday, with Topolanek in tow.
Czech officials say they are privately praying that Klaus, a vociferous critic of state intervention in the economy, won’t lecture Obama on how to run the U.S. economy or offer him his latest book, “Blue Planet in Green Shackles,” which argues that the fight against global warming is a threat to freedom.
