The previous weekend, sizeable numbers of demonstrators had converged on Rome for a "No Berlusconi Day" at which the prime minister was variously deplored and ridiculed.
He was widely pilloried for the record 6-1 World Cup qualifier defeat in Bolivia and his relationship with the country's football-obsessed sports media struggled to recover.
Mr. Buchanan lists six factors that contribute to the DINK lifestyle and explain why today's culture mocks "the old idea that the good life for a woman means a husband and a houseful of kids."
Obama countered with a trace of sarcasm that he didn't understand some things - like how US could face the challenge in Afghanistan after spending years and hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq.
The most grovelling apologies from American officials in recent days are said (by those who have received them) to concern not gibes at personalities, but dirty tricks conducted in friendly countries.