Barack Obama is the first sitting US president to visit Jamaica in 33 years, and only the second to make an official state visit since independence in 1962—the other being Ronald Reagan, in 1982. “Playboy” president John F. Kennedy, who had honeymooned with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy in Jamaica, visited during his presidency too—for a family vacation.
Ostensibly, the purpose of the President’s visit was to discuss energy, security and trade with top Caribbean officials including Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller—or, as Reuters put it, to “reassert U.S. leadership in the Caribbean.” But his first stop upon arrival was the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, where he received private tour—along with with Secret Service and a small press contingent, of course. There, according to the Associated Press, he was said to have remarked: “I still have all the albums.” Gwaan, Barry Wailers!
