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2009-03-05 Britain
Obama's blockbuster gift for Brown to reaffirm the 'special relationship': 25 DVDs
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Posted by Beavis 2009-03-05 14:31|| || Front Page|| [11133 views ]  Top

#1 Empress Michelle didn't do much better with her gift to Sarah Brown

First Lady Michelle Obama shows even she has a gift for the gaffe

Like all good guests, Sarah Brown arrived bearing gifts for the children, Malia and Sasha. And they were really nice presents. A bit of thought had clearly gone into choosing them: Top Shop dresses (with matching necklaces) and a selection of books by British authors. Lovely.

Mrs Brown may have two boys but she certainly knows the way to a little girl’s heart. These were gifts chosen in the true spirit of present-giving: to please the recipient, not the giver.

In return Mrs Obama gave the Brown children, Fraser and John, two toy models of Marine One, the Presidential helicopter. Fair enough on the helicopter part, always a popular choice with small boys; but Marine One? It’s not as though anyone needs reminding that Barack Obama is President or that he has his own helicopter. Short of giving the boys Action Man models of her own husband smiting the evil forces of neoconservatism, Mrs Obama’s gesture could not have been more solipsistic or more inherently dismissive of Mrs Brown.

Not only did she demonstrate that she spent approximately three seconds contemplating the needs of the Brown boys (having an aide pop to the White House gift shop for a piece of merchandising does not imply a great deal of thought), she appeared to show a most uncharacteristic lapse of judgment.
Posted by Sherry 2009-03-05 15:41||   2009-03-05 15:41|| Front Page Top

#2 L
O
L

What classless clowns.
Posted by Anon4021 2009-03-05 15:42||   2009-03-05 15:42|| Front Page Top

#3 What an embarrassment to the nation.

What's next? MD 20-20 (wine) served at State Dinners?
Posted by CrazyFool 2009-03-05 15:51||   2009-03-05 15:51|| Front Page Top

#4 C'mon now. He has all the class of the Illinois state senator he's actually qualified to be...
Posted by tu3031 2009-03-05 15:55||   2009-03-05 15:55|| Front Page Top

#5 After the envelope stuffed with cash was ruled out, the Obama White House was completely out of gift ideas.
Posted by ed 2009-03-05 16:02||   2009-03-05 16:02|| Front Page Top

#6 A commenter on another site sheds some more light on this. It makes me think it's more of an directed insult instead of a careless slight.

http://www.luoamerican.com/baldilocks/2009/03/vengeance-is-his.html

If you recall, before Kenya became Kenya (1963) it was a British colony known as British East Africa. Between 1952 and 1960, there was this little “difference of opinion” between the UK and the natives of British East Africa—primarily from the Kikuyu tribe. That conflict is known as the Mau Mau Uprising. There were tens of thousands of African civilians killed and, according to Wiki, seven to ten thousand Africans interned by the British colonial masters. In Dreams from My Father, President Obama says that his grandfather was tortured by the British during the conflict, though he was not a Kikuyu but a Luo. Guess which prime minister ordered the Mau Mau insurgency to be put down.
Posted by Anon4021 2009-03-05 16:47||   2009-03-05 16:47|| Front Page Top

#7 Thanks Anon. The parallels are striking. The Kikuyu experience became the blueprint for other African wars of liberation as well. Very relevant piece of history.

Others watched these events as well.
Posted by Besoeker  2009-03-05 17:20||   2009-03-05 17:20|| Front Page Top

#8 ed, now that was funny.
Posted by phil_b 2009-03-05 17:46||   2009-03-05 17:46|| Front Page Top

#9 Fair enough on the helicopter part, always a popular choice with small boys; but Marine One? It’s not as though anyone needs reminding that Barack Obama is President or that he has his own helicopter.

Oh, I dunno. A model of Marine One given to you by the President is pretty damn cool, and it's something you probably can't come by in Britain.

Frankly, I find giving presents fraught with peril, especially presents to kids. Dresses? How sexist! Books? How dull! Give 'em what they really want -- Bratz dolls? AIIEEE!

Me, I love getting books. Though I wouldn't have turned up my nose at, say, a model Spitfire. Pocketa pocketa pocketa! Take that, Jerry! Rat-tat-tat-tat! And that bomber jacket would be SWEET. What a weedy wet that Brown is.

And he will hope that at a General Election the British public do not shun his imploration for another term in office by thinking at the ballot box of the famous line from another of the movies, Casblanca: 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.'

FAIL. That was Gone with the Wind.
Posted by Angie Schultz 2009-03-05 18:23||   2009-03-05 18:23|| Front Page Top

#10 What's next? MD 20-20 (wine) served at State Dinners?

He's saving that for the Sarkozy visit.
Posted by DMFD 2009-03-05 18:46||   2009-03-05 18:46|| Front Page Top

#11 > What's next? MD 20-20 (wine) served at State Dinners?

Crumbs the recession must be really bad!
Posted by Bright Pebbles the flatulent 2009-03-05 19:07||   2009-03-05 19:07|| Front Page Top

#12 What? No unicorn?
Posted by Frank G 2009-03-05 19:31||   2009-03-05 19:31|| Front Page Top

#13 "Mrs Obama's gesture appeared to show a most uncharacteristic lapse her standard self-centered complete lack of judgment."

Fixed.
Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut  2009-03-05 19:56||   2009-03-05 19:56|| Front Page Top

#14 The Big O should have given Gordon Brown's boys a couple of models of these:

IDEX MD Helo

Autographed by 49 Pan
Posted by Alaska Paul 2009-03-05 21:05||   2009-03-05 21:05|| Front Page Top

#15 I wonder if the DVDs will play on a UK DVD player.
Posted by Darrell 2009-03-05 21:37||   2009-03-05 21:37|| Front Page Top

23:49 rwv
23:44 rwv
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