Via NY Times:
LONDON-Finally! An answer to the question that everyone has been dying to know, especially after the debacle of the gift exchange last month when the Obama’s gave British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a bunch of DVDs and proceeded to get hammered for bad gift-giving by the British press: What did the Obamas give to Queen Elizabeth II Wednesday when they arrived at Buckingham Palace?
An iPod.
Wow. Better’n a pack of DVD from Wal-Mart, I suppose, but still astonishingly LAME. Again, on the one hand… who cares. Goofballs giving other goofballs goofy gifts is on a certain level not important. On the other hand, we’re dealing with international diplomacy, which seems to be based more on perception than anything else.
Fortunately, when time came to reciprocate, the Queen was prepared to phone it in:
According to reports, the queen gave the Obamas a silver framed signed photograph — a gift she gives to all visiting dignitaries.
Whoop-de-shit.
4 Responses to “Obamateur Hour Continues…”
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given what the State Dept said about the relationship with the UK (“same as everyone else”), the Queen’s gift to the President seems quite appropriate.
Sure, but what DO you give the queen of England as a visiting head of state ?
Florida !
Wait, the Spanish had that…
> what DO you give the queen of England as a visiting head of state ?
How about, “Hi, my name is President Smith, and I’m here to do business, not trade gifts. Turn the damned cameras off and let’s get to work.” Undiplomatic as all hell, but I’d respect the hell out of it.
In the end, “no gift” is better than “lame gift that demonstrates lack of respect for the post that you yourself hold.”
I wonder if the DVDs that were given to Prime Minister Gordon Brown were NTSC or PAL? Well if they were NTSC, the Prime Minister could recycle the films as coasters.
What the hell is the Queen of England going to do with an iPod? Maybe she could give it to one of her grandchildren?
President Obama is receiving very poor advice by giving these lame gifts to visiting foreign dignataries. I guess we cannot expect much from the Department of State if they cannot even translate or spell Russian correctly.