Posted on 03/07/2009 12:30:19 AM PST by Plutarch
You'd think President Obama had booted the Brits out of America — again!
London newspapers are howling over a string of alleged snubs by Obama to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown during his visit to Washington last week — including a squabble over presidential gift-giving.
"President Obama has been rudeness personified towards Britain," sniffed The Daily Telegraph Friday. "His handling of the visit of the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to Washington was appalling."
The list of complaints is longer than the Magna Carta: Obama canceled a planned, podium-to-podium news conference with Brown (actually, none was ever scheduled); he recently removed a bust of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill from the Oval Office; and he gave gifts to the Brown family that were "about as exciting as a pair of socks," one Fleet Street wag whined.
That last bit might be true. After Brown presented Obama with a pen holder crafted from the timbers of the 19th century British warship HMS President (whose sister ship, HMS Resolute, provided the wood for the Oval Office's desk), Obama offered up ... 25 DVDs of American movie classics.
"Oh, give me strength," wrote one appalled Daily Telegraph staffer. "We do have television and DVD stores on this side of the Atlantic."
Never mind that Brown is blind in one eye and may have a hard time seeing the stars in "2001: A Space Odyssey," or that American DVDs are usually incompatible with British players.
Equally insulting, decided the Times of London, was Michelle Obama's "solipsistic" and "inherently dismissive" gifts to the Browns' two little boys, Fraser and John.
The offending souvenirs? Toy models of Marine One, the President's helicopter — gifts no doubt plucked from the White House gift shop at the last minute, The Times decided....
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Who knew...?
Never mind that Brown is blind in one eye and may have a hard time seeing the stars in "2001: A Space Odyssey," or that American DVDs are usually incompatible with British players.
Well, those region 1 American DVD's will still make a nice shiny set coasters.
lol...they also reflect the sun like a mirror. Nice to have as a rescue signaling device on a boat, too, as they won't rust.
There are quite a few junkies, wanna be community organizers, in the streets around here. I’d have to guess that most would be more qualified (verified legal) and the majority would have more class. (Shut up if you don’t know.)
I’m no elitist, but giving a visiting head of state such an impersonal, mundane gift is just plain tacky.
Especially when that head of state is from one of our country’s oldest and most reliable allies, and also shares many historical ties.
geesh, for a truly cheap priceless gift, hussein could have given his BC. The entire world would have enjoyed that! Meanwhile, he has made USA a laughingstock.
But of course.
I can't image Brown standing at one podium taking questions, while Obama is standing at the other podium, surrounded by teleprompters.
-PJ
Get a load of these comments from Ms 0 worshipers. “These are tough economic times in the US as well as in Britain. We do not need to be giving extravagant gifts to anyone.” “This is the most ridiculously racist attack on the First Lady yet: perhaps you haven’t heard: WE ARE IN AN ECONOMIC MESS. I can only imagine the nasty attack she would have sustained for giving EXPENSIVE gifts.” http://michelleobamawatch.com/british-paper-calls-first-lady-obama-lady-macbeth-because-they-didnt-like-the-toys-she-gave-pms-kids
He hates America.
Of course he doesn’t like Britain—they are our allies.
At least Obama is an equal opportunity boor.
LOL!
I swear, these Obama sycophants would defend Obama if we found a video of him drowning kittens.
Brown came to see Obama to try and keep his sorry butt up in the polls. Gordo has to face the voters before Barry and he stands a good chance of losing to the Tories.
The economy clearly tanked on Brown’s watch.
He did that in Ohio.
It was a 2012 re-election campaign trip. Obama wants to keep the Buckeye State in his column.
you mean Kenya?
Those kittens were in the top 10% of earners.
They were already having half their Meow Mix confiscated, and as we know that’s not nearly enough sacrifice.
So he was just helping them give a little more and be more patriotic by spreading their air around.
And if you disagree with that agenda you aren’t being bipartisan.
Good one! XD
Hey, a little fishing line and a couple of sticks and they make a nice, shiny set of wind chimes...even if they don't chime so well...
Deeply in debt but ostentatious.
Umm, way to go Obama. This article should have been about a faux pas on the British side. Probably not the same HMS President, but during the War of 1812, the USS President was captured and reflagged the HMS President. The USS President was one of the six original American frigates which included the USS Constitution.
You were the a-holes who thought he was going to be so great. He isn't. SITYS.
He's head of government, not head of state. Doesn't lessen the oddness of the gift. I guess Obama was trying to find something uniquely American, and Hollywood is an American institution. Still gobsmackingly tacky. I wonder what he will get when he visits the UK ... the complete Mr. Bean?
Why not a Chia pet? Not only are they very attractive, they promote the ‘green’ concept of growing.
I’m no elitist, but giving a visiting head of state such an impersonal, mundane gift is just plain tacky.
I may have missed something, but who ever said the muslim resident had class. He is a ghetto mutt.
To the Good People of the United Kingdom: please, allow us ordinary American citizens who still remember Winston Churchill with fondness and awe, and who hold you all in a spirit of comraderie and affection to apologize for the disrespectful behavior of the President. (He had better NOT act like a jerk to the Queen! WE HAVE HAD IT WITH THIS PUZZLING AND JUVENILE ATTITUDE TOWARD OUR BELOVED ENGLAND! If he wants to be the President to all of us; he had best get over his Afrocentric and Muslim favoritism. If he doesn’t know how to do it, he could look at old video of how hospitable past Presidents have been to ALL visiting dignitaries.)
You may be right, but for the wrong reason. It may have been a calculated rebuke to Michelle Obama’s apparent hatred of Britain because of the slave trade when the Royal Navy was busily engaged for most of the 19th century capturing slave ships and liberating the captives held within.....
Actually, it could have been just a little more embarrassing......he could have given autographed copies of his two books to the Brown’s.
By his dissing of Brown he is showing the Muslims that he is on their side, and the days of an “English” England are rapidly fading. While the papers are aghast at the snub, I bet his actions are going over very well in the Muslim areas and Mosques throughout England.
One has to wonder if “The Patriot” or even “Braveheart” may have been included in the DVD selections.
He's also a phony. Barry was brought up by a well-off white family in Hawaii and went to private schools. Before that, he had lived abroad, where he also went to private schools (attended, as usual in those places, by the children of diplomats and other well-off foreigners). There's no ghetto in that boy! Although he certainly wants to give the impression that there is. It adds to his creds with the hoods he would like to count as his "bros."
His wife has a more modest background, but even she isn't from the ghetto. Just no-class.
Unfortunately, the world will have to get used to this type of appalling behavior for the next four years. The Kenyan Clown and his circus are going to redefine our diplomatic relationships in a manner unprecedented in American history.
We can only hope that the next occupant of the office will be able to mend some of these. That hope is all that we have at this point, since there's literally nothing that we can do at this point. The executive is in charge of foreign relations, and even if we were to take back the House in 2010, it wouldn't matter a whit with regard to the administration's conduct in foreign relations --- while we might be able, for instance, to defund some foreign aid, such as the egregious sending of money to terrorists, we still would not be able to have any influence over the embarrassing antics of the members of the executive.
I guess those people also think that since we're in an economic mess, Obama ought to save the country some money by announcing his new programs from the Oval Office, instead of flying all over the country to make announcements?
Meanwhile....
Gaffe Watch: Hillary Tells Europeans U.S. Democracy Much Older Than Europe’s
Drowning Kittens is small time to the baby killing Obama.
He is in to sucking the brains from human babies, or throwing them in a laundry basket to die.
Whats a few cats to a baby killer?
Especially when that head of state is from one of our country’s oldest and most reliable allies, and also shares many historical ties.
Presumably no expense will be spared and the First Family will roll out the red carpet for the first visit of African dignitaries.
(oh, I'm sorry. What that my outside voice speaking?)...
Just keepin it classy!
When Stevie Wonder was at the crib the other night, BHObama could have gotten an autographed CD for the PM.......
As I understand it, they fired all the experienced staff and hired people they could trust, politically, who were also affirmative action candidates. After all, anyone can do these nice jobs with nice salaries, so it doesn’t matter as long as they are loyalists.
There is no one left in the WH who understands protocol. If anyone bothered to find out the correct manner of doing these sorts of things, they were obviously told that was then, this is now, we won and we will do things our way.
Is anyone in the MSM reporting the weekly Wednesday parties being held at the WH for zerO’s friends and cronies? Did they stop after the wagu beef disclosure?
Hillary also mispronounced the names of EU dignitaries. Certainly, that made us a lot of friends among those allies who were reportedly impatient to be rid of Bush.
I fully expect to hear how racist all the world is, over the next four years. Since the zerO campaign made a big deal of how much he was loved in Europe and how relieved the Russians were to get rid of that old warmonger, W, this is going to be a hard sell. However, the Progressive donks will buy it with barely a qualm, let alone a question.
I am appalled at the stupidity of the President and co-President.
At the same time, I am appalled that another uncommon word is added to the journalists’ dictionary, evidently to be used as often as possible.
“Solipsistic” simply isn’t a part of most folks’ vocabularies.
Few people can pronounce it without sounding like they are lisping.
And guys and gals, somewhat like the wild changes in the meaning of the word “meme” (which originally connoted the spreading of information by word of mouth from person to person), I’m sure “solipsistic” will also mean whatever the user means it to mean.
Not really. The connexion is tenous, and you would have to be thin-skinned and overly sensitive to take offense.
It was used against Arab slavers in the Mediterranean in the 1880s.
Actually two steps away (see my post above)
Given the way I feel about cats, I might just have to support him on that one.
Brown is really gonna be pissed when he finds out the DVDs are due back at Blockbuster on Monday!
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