Commanding the flags be flown at half staff for Mandela while giving no such honor to Margaret Thatcher is disgraceful. Again, Obama shows that his ideology is the most important thing to him. Now, I don't want to diminish Mandela's legacy. Post-imprisonment Mandela was probably one of the best human beings who lived (yes, better than Thatcher). To adopt a philosophy of forgiveness and love while suffering degrading and dehumanizing treatment shows indescribable character.
If you had to name the US's closest ally over the past century, whom would you name? I'd have to say England. England's longest serving peace-time prime minister, the first female prime minister of the UK, Thatcher helped restore England's economy and usher in the end of communism. She was a great friend to the US and we to her. The flags should have been lowered to honor her.
This is just another blemish on Obama's foreign policy. He's had one, potentially two foreign policy success—being commander in chief when Bin Laden was captured, and possibly presiding over the end of chemical weapons in Syria. The latter of course, he didn't organize but rather lent his support to others' ideas.
The most damning fact of Obama's foreign policy, does the US have better relations with any country now than we did when he took office? Especially with our allies (the UK, Eastern Europe, Egypt, Israel), the answer must be no. Even the nations where our relations were awful (Russia, Iran, Syria) are no better now than they were.