Apparently Obama shops at Wal Mart

Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the UK recently visited with President 0bama. Traditionally, the Pres and the PM exchange gifts. So, let’s see how it went…

From the Daily Mail:

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.

OK, that’s pretty spiffy. Unique items of political and historical importance. So, how about the other gift-giver here?

Barack Obama, the leader of the world’s richest country, gave the Prime Minister a box set of 25 classic American films – a gift about as exciting as a pair of socks.

Wow. That’s… that’s just lame. A box of DVD’s? Really? You’re the President of what is still the richest nation on Earth, about to meet the leader of arguably your nation’s staunchest ally, and you have someone pick up something that any schmoe with fifty or a hundred bucks could get at WalMart or Costco?

0bama is doing a bang-up job of demonstrating just what an underprepared buffoon he really is. Never mind the disastrous economic policies he’s cramming down our throats… he doesn’t even have the sense to know when to put a little bit of thought into a gift. A gift that might not even play on British Region 2 DVD players. Wouldn’t that be a kick in the head.

Gifts like these are diplomatic niceties, nothing more… and they are gifts that should last for generations.  But they should be recognized for the public relations value they have. And DVDs are simple commercial items of no lasting value. Come back in fifty years, first-volumes of historic books and pens made from centuries-old wood from important vessels will still be there (assuming they haven’t been burned to provide a little warmth in the Green future), on dispaly at some Presidental museum, or even on the then-Presidents desk. But DVDs? I suspect DVDs will be as useful in fifty years as reel-to-reel tapes or 8-tracks are today.

I hope 0bama at least had his lackeys take the price tags off ’em.