http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/03/022991.php In return, 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?
Ed Morrissey adds to the derision that has been heaped on Obama's gift (and links to others with related thoughts as well). Mark Hemingway comments that "he's just not that into the special relationship" and wonders whether the president gave Brown DVDs that are compatible with British players.
Perhaps Obama can yet redeem himself. Scott Ott reports that Obama may have something in mind for Queen Elizabeth. According to Ott, "White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the president has also put a lot of thought into what gift to present to Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace." Drawing on his sources among "White House insiders," Ott reports that "Mr. Obama has narrowed it down to a CD box set, Queen: The Crown Jewels, or a queen-sized mattress."
UPDATE:
The Telegraph's Iain Martin adds: "A box of 25 DVDS including ET, the Wizard of Oz and Star Wars? Oh, give me strength. We do have television and DVD stores on this side of the Atlantic. Even Gordon Brown will have seen those films too often already."
MORE: Reader Ken Gage observes: "Going back to the topic of is he just that stupid or is he doing it on purpose, consider the fact that Gordon Brown is blind in one eye and has some visual deterioration in the other (how much is unclear). A calculated insult could not have been more on-target." Jules Crittenden asks whether Obama is "wicked, childish or dim." 
P.M. Gordon Browns gifts
In connection with his visit to Washington this week British Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave President Obama an interesting set of gifts. The Daily Mail reports:
Mr Brown's gifts included an ornamental desk pen holder made from the oak timbers of Victorian anti-slaver HMS Gannet, once named HMS President.
Mr Obama was so delighted he has already put it in pride of place in the Oval Office on the Resolute desk which was carved from timbers of Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute.
Another treasure given to the U.S. President was the framed commission for HMS Resolute, a vessel that came to symbolise Anglo-US peace when it was saved from ice packs by Americans and given to Queen Victoria.
Finally, Mr Brown gave a first edition set of the seven-volume classic biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.
Elaborating on the history of HMS Gannet, Ted Bromund explains:
The ironies here are wonderful, though Obama doesn't seem likely to appreciate them. Of course, the reference to the anti-slavery mission is a nod to Obama's fascination, fervent but not deep, with Abraham Lincoln.
But HMS Gannet was not, as a casual reader might guess, employed against the trade of slaves from Africa to the New World, and since it was built in 1878, it has nothing to do with Lincoln or slavery in the United States. It sailed the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, patrolling against Islamist slavers. In the Red Sea, the Africans it saved would have come, among other places, from Kenya. Obama has made mention of his grandfather's antipathy to Britain, stemming from his experiences in colonial Kenya. It is quite possible that grandfather's ancestors would, had it not been for the Royal Navy, have been carried away to slavery in Arabia.
The British campaign against the slave trade is instructive for another, more important, reason. By volume of business, it was the Foreign Office's most important concern for much of the 19th century. In the courts of Europe and the New World, Britain sought to negotiate effective treaties against the trade. But Britain did not restrict itself to diplomacy. Far too often, treaties were negotiated and then not enforced. Britain's first response to this was usually to negotiate again, but its patience was not infinite
Topic: This is funny Gordon presents to Obama vs obama's to Brown (Read 504 times)