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| Britain |
| President Barack Obama dislikes Britain, but he's keen to meet the Queen |
| 2009-03-07 |
| President Obama has been rudeness personified towards Britain this week. His handling of the visit of the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to Washington was appalling. First Brown wasn't granted a press conference with flags, then one was hastily arranged in the Oval office after the Brits had to beg. Obama looked like he would rather have been anywhere else than welcoming the British leader to his office and topped it all with his choice of present (*) for the PM. 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. This was coupled with Michelle Obama's casual choice of gifts for the Brown sons - matching models of the helicopter which ferry her husband around. While Sarah Brown had spent time choosing gifts for the Obama girls, Michelle had clearly sent an aide to the White House gift shop at the last moment. All in all, he doesn't think much of us, as I explained in my post here earlier this week. But what's this? Something, suddenly, seems to have made the Obama White House perk up and start to take an interest in the Brits. The Queen has invited the President to tea when he's here for the G20 in April. And he's in through the front door of Buckingham Palace faster than a Harley Davidson roaring along Route 66. Note how the coolness of Team Obama disappears when a bit of regal glamour is introduced into the equation. He might not like the Brits, but he can recognise a global superstar when he encounters one. He wants to be associated with her. He's shameless. (*) If Obama, or someone in his inner circle, had spent two minutes thinking about what present to get Brown then they could easily have come up with something appropriate. He likes books. He loves American history. Get him a signed first edition of a good Robert Dallek book such as the brilliant Flawed Giant on LBJ. Come to think of it, Obama should read it too, if he hasn't yet, as it reveals a great deal about how a Presidency can go so wrong. Oh my. A social climber. Who would have thought it? One oversteps the mark with the Brits at one's peril. The pointed elbows of a chicago pol don't stand a chance in the presense of centuries of honed and cutting British editorial vitriol. He best just go and solve the Middle East problems, it will be easier. The thugs of Hamas are more in his class. |
| Posted by:Omoter Speaking for Boskone7794 |
| #20 just remember: we've got a thin-skinned, angry, no-accomplishment racist redistributionist elitist in the White House - and her husband is even worse |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-03-07 21:41 |
| #19 Petty, thinskinned and utterly lacking in either class or subtlety. AKA Ghetto. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2009-03-07 21:39 |
| #18 No, the cheap gift was a calculated insult. Remember, just a few days previous to Brown's visit Obama also sent back the bust of Churchill that Blair had given. Petty, thinskinned and utterly lacking in either class or subtlety. |
| Posted by: lotp 2009-03-07 21:31 |
| #17 Coming out of the Chicago political machine as they do, the Big O and his aides are probably unfamiliar with the idea of gifts that don't involve envelopes of cash. At least they had the presence of mind to get a set of DVDs in Region 2 PAL format rather than the American Region 1 NTSC. Uh, didn't they? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2009-03-07 18:12 |
| #16 Whatta jackass. Perhaps next time he needs to take a weekend off he could come out here and take some lessons from the belles in the retirement home. Apologies visiting Brits, I swear this 'ugly American' behavior is not the norm. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2009-03-07 18:11 |
| #15 they are classless, respectless tools. Hope and change, baby! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-03-07 17:40 |
| #14 Give Hussein a meal of Spotted Dick and Kippers. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2009-03-07 17:33 |
| #13 Maybe serving Zero a McDonalds Happy Meal at the Queens state banquet might be apt? I think that gloppy shit y'all have for breakfast over there would be more fitting. Poridge? |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2009-03-07 14:52 |
| #12 Abu, however, they should have access to the best and brightest who can help them choose gifts and to teach them how to be polite to foreign heads of state. Hmmm. I wonder what kind of gift O will give Ahmedinnerjacket when he comes to accept the United States' surrender? I'm sure it won't be a pile of DVD's, since DVD's are unIslamic. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2009-03-07 14:24 |
| #11 I think it's probably just a matter of the Obamas having no class, no manners, no civility. They're just rude, crude Chicago hustlers who don't know any better. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2009-03-07 13:53 |
| #10 Another Obama Gift |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles the flatulent 2009-03-07 12:44 |
| #9 PM Brown's reaction caught on Secret Service surveillance. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-03-07 12:10 |
| #8 Maybe serving Zero a McDonalds Happy Meal at the Queens state banquet might be apt? Actually the worse revenge they could have is serving him British food. |
| Posted by: JFM 2009-03-07 11:30 |
| #7 ...and perhaps a couple of Buckingham Palace snow globes for the kids. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2009-03-07 09:57 |
| #6 Maybe serving Zero a McDonalds Happy Meal at the Queens state banquet might be apt? |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles the flatulent 2009-03-07 09:43 |
| #5 Barry briefly discusses his paternal grandfather Hussein Onyango Obama's imprisonment in his 'memoir' Dreams of My Father. Onyango became a British army officer's cook but later got involved in the Mau Mau guerilla movement. He was arrested in 1949 and jailed for two years as the British struggled to quell "The Kenyan Emergency" one of Africa's bloodiest rebellions against colonial rule. Tribal grudges are an institution in African and they live on among many in the Lau and Kikuyu of Kenya. I'm certain a Chinese made helicopter from the White House gift shop was seen by Michelle as quite enough. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-03-07 07:56 |
| #4 Well, Wizard of Oz and Star Wars are good movies. But as the gift to a head of state, a pile of DVDs you could find at Wal-Mart is pretty ghetto. But that's our Prez! |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2009-03-07 07:45 |
| #3 He best just go and solve the Middle East problems Bite your tongue, blue man---we've enough trouble as it is. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-03-07 07:34 |
| #2 Simple explanation for the rudeness: Obama thinks of himself as African, and Africans don't like the UK. |
| Posted by: Cynicism Inc 2009-03-07 07:28 |
| #1 I wouldn't mind a DVD collection including ET, the Wizard of Oz and Star Wars. |
| Posted by: Cherelet and Tenille1095 2009-03-07 06:11 |