Was Obama's gift to British P.M. Gordon Brown a slap in the face to one of our best allies?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/06/obamas-blockbuster-gift-brown-dvds/
and share your thoughts
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As a matter of comparison the the Prime Minister gave Mr Obama an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet.
So was Obama insulted by receiving a part of a ship? Tit for tat. It's making good news and increasing the revenue of the papers and market shares for media outlets. I don't think there is anything that is going to cause a rift in U.S. relations. (I have my own reasons apart from this to think that.) I hope you found this useful.
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It reminds me of the end scene in Cinema Paradiso: the old man's gift to Salvatore.
The first article you link to states that Brown is not a film buff.
It seems, and the press has noticed that the gifts Brown has given, have always been well picked, whereas the gifts from Obama, and admittedly the jacket from Bush, could have been picked up at a local mall or the White House gift shop.
First, though, I doubt Presidents have the time to go picking out presents for their visitors personally. I would imagine there might be White House staffers or people in the State Department that get paid to think these things through, with maybe the President just giving an okay.
The fact that those people came up with such an inept idea isn't very encouraging about the state of US diplomacy though.
However, it seems the poor man got a rotten gift (a bomber jacket) from President Bush also, so at least it's not a new development.
And I'm sure the US/UK relationship is strong enough not to be at all affected.
I wonder if maybe the game plan was to have a generic gift that could be given to all visitors? That maybe wouldn't be such a bad idea. If the gift was a universally appropriate one.
I can only hope they don't repeat this kind of thing with countries that are more touchy.
Even as it is, apparently the "British press are appalled". (Admittedly, there are sections of the press that love any opportunity to be appalled!)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2009/mar/06/obama-dvd-brown
On the plus side, it seems Obama placed a special call to Brown's plane to thank him for the British gifts. So hopefully any slighltly peeved feelings were more than smoothed over by that call.
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The fact that it was specially requested to be produced by the American Film Society gives me the indication that there was a lot of thought put into it, and probably has a little more depth to it than your average stack of DVDs. What that might be is purely speculation, but I don't think Barack Obama is so inept that he would give the BritishPrime Minister a gift that would be appropriate for a high school graduation gift.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
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