From Alannika 1.2.41-66

Is the King's praise of Polonius and his kindness towards Laertes genuine? There was one main them (and several sub-themes) within the responses I recieved. One was that while Claudius' praise may or may not be genuine, he has an ulterior motive for which to praise and reward those loyal to him: because he is relatively new king, keeping his loyal followers happy and feeling acknowledged for their loyalty and usefulness. And from that theme were such specutations as to Claudius' manipulation tactics (and his wide-spread use of them so far), his real opinions about Polonius' loyalty, usefulness and ambition, and whether or not the King is ignoring Polonius as a possible problem in favor of a larger threat to his power (such as Hamlet). Although, at least by act 2 of Hamlet, we haven't seen a ton of Claudius, so far the general feeling is that he is power hungry and manipulative.