Last week, British PM Gordon Brown paid a visit to president Obama. There were a number of indignities foisted on the PM, including denying him a joint press conference, leaving the British press excluded from the meeting and, finally, his gift to the PM. I didn’t believe this story when I first heard it, thinking it a joke. Alas, it was true.
President Obama gave Prime Minister Brown a 25-DVD box set of classic American films. Prime Minister Brown obviously sees the gift as something of an indignity. The Daily Mail reports that “No 10 had tried to keep the present a secret, refusing to answer reporters who asked what President Obama had given to mark the reaffirmation of the special relationship.” Compared to the gifts brought for Obama by Brown, the DVDs are an embarrassment. Couldn’t Obama at least have thrown in an an autographed copy of The Audacity of Hope?
Brown, being the leader of a great country and aware of his role, gave Obma several fine gifts with real meaning.
The Prime Minister gave Mr Obama an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet. The unique present delighted Mr Obama because oak from the Gannet’s sister ship, HMS Resolute, was carved to make a desk that has sat in the Oval Office in the White House since 1880.
Mr Brown also handed over a framed commission for HMS Resolute and a first edition of the seven-volume biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.
In addition, Mr Brown and his wife showered gifts on the Obama children giving Sasha and Malia an outfit each from Topshop and six children’s books by British authors which are shortly to be published in America.
An additional insult is the fact that PM Brown is blind in one eye and has diminished vision in the other. The visit was a disaster and followed Obama’s return of a bust of Churchill that had graced the White House for years.
Really showing them that old Chicago class, aren’t we.
Fortunately, we have a highly talented Secretary of State, although her Russian could use some work.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened her first extended talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by giving him a present meant to symbolize the Obama administration’s vow to “press the reset button” on U.S.-Russia relations.
She handed a palm-sized box wrapped with a bow. Lavrov opened it and pulled out the gift: a red button on a black base with a Russian word peregruzka printed on top.
“We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?” Clinton asked.
“You got it wrong,” Lavrov said.
Instead of “reset,” Lavrov said the word on the box meant “overcharge.”
Yes, we have an administration of all the talents.
UPDATE: we have two explanations now. One is that the president is “overwhelmed.” The other is that Britain is not so special.
The Telegraph’s story contains this suggestion that Obama’s slight of the British Prime Minister may have been intentional, at least in part:
The real views of many in Obama administration were laid bare by a State Department official involved in planning the Brown visit, who reacted with fury when questioned by The Sunday Telegraph about why the event was so low-key.
The official dismissed any notion of the special relationship, saying: “There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.”
I had avoided reading the details of the visit as I heard it was embarrassment to our country. And it was indeed. We have had the Special Relationship with GB for years and years and they have consistently been on one our most valued allies (Aghanistan anyone?) and for this sort of shoddy treatment to take place during their first official visit is really stunning. On top of that, quite obviously a lot of thought, consideration effort was put into the ornate pen holder. I almost with Gordon Brown would demand President Obama return it.
Obama could have saved PM Brown the trouble of carrying the DVD’s in his luggage and just given him a coupon for Amazon dot com where he could have ordered it like anybody else. Real thoughtful gift there, Obama.
Any idiot knows that the gifts are a symbol of the mutual respect and appreciation our countries share in backing each other in promoting democracy and freedom. Is Obama just dim, thoughtless, or both?
Brett: “Is Obama just dim, thoughtless, or both?” Can’t he also have a tin ear and feet of clay?
Mike, I’ve enjoyed your comments at Patterico’s. Had to drop by and say so.
Given our particular history with Russia, a giant red button seems in really odd taste.
just given him a coupon for Amazon dot com
Hahaha! CASH! Just hand him a wad of cash! That should do it.
I suspect leftists such as Obama and his ilk see Britain as the repository of Anglo-Saxon meritocratic political culture for which Barack and company don’t particularly care, so Barack probably thinks he was being polite by not spitting in PM Brown’s face.