MANILA, Philippines—Administration officials probably saw nothing wrong with it, but President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s determined—and ultimately futile—pursuit of Sen. Barack Obama made a number of Filipinos cringe in embarrassment.

The President was originally reported to have a meeting with the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president last Wednesday in New York, but the site was later changed to Washington, D.C., a convenient change for Ms Arroyo who was winding up her official visit to the US capital on that day. Wednesday came and went, but there was no Obama. (He was said to be on the other side of the United States, in Hollywood, attending a fund-raising event.) That night Ms Arroyo left for New York, where she later learned Obama would meet with her in Washington Thursday. There was talk Ms Arroyo might skip some of her scheduled activities in New York, including a meeting with foreign diplomats assigned to the United Nations, to fly back to Washington for the meeting with Obama. But again the meeting was called off. As a consolation, the senator from Illinois on Thursday gave her 30 minutes of his time—on the telephone.

Thus, the President of the Philippines ended up looking like the pesky little fly that needed to be thrown sweet nothings just so she would get out of the way of somebody who is not even president (yet) of his country. If Ms Arroyo and her advisers didn’t find it improper or even demeaning to be so inordinately eager to see Obama, there are others who did. The President cannot behave like a love-struck teenager, willing and ready to do everything and drop anything, including her dignity, just to see her idol.

It is hard to believe that Obama or his people could be so insensitive and undiplomatic as to call off at the last minute a scheduled meeting with a foreign head of state. That simply isn’t done, except if there is an emergency or unless someone wants to signal extreme displeasure. What most likely happened was that arrangements were made for a possible meeting and nothing definite was agreed upon, but some presumptuous Palace officials took the meeting as a done deal. Thus, on the eve of the President’s departure, the Philippine consul general in San Francisco, Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr., announced that Obama and his Republican rival Sen. John McCain had “shown interest” in meeting with Ms Arroyo and that indeed the meetings had been confirmed.

But after finding out that no firm date had been set for the Arroyo-Obama meeting, why didn’t the President’s men just hide their disappointment instead of continuing to fish for a meeting? Better still, why didn’t Ms Arroyo simply cut her trip short and go home to attend to the many things needing her attention in the face of the deaths and destruction wreaked by Typhoon Frank? Nobody would have noticed this misunderstanding with the Obama camp (if that was what it was) had she simply flown back to personally take charge of emergency relief operations.

She already got what she wanted from the visit: a reaffirmation of her friendship with US President George W. Bush and high praise from him for her campaign against terrorism. But apparently she wanted to blunt criticism about firming up relations with a lame-duck president by starting new personal relationships with his likely successors. She didn’t quite succeed (at least as far as Obama is concerned), and instead embarrassed herself and the nation.