"Probably he wanted to say "We neither have a better friend nor a stauncher ally". "

Obama may not have supported the last Iraq war, but he can not deny that Britain was among the allies of USA, and France was not.
In Afghanistan he must know that Britain has many more of its people fighting alongside US troops than France has sent, and that many more British people have died fighting there than French people.

So by what criteria is Britain not "a stauncher ally"?