A Roundup on Obama's Snub Of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown

The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited the United States this past week, but you'd hardly know it, as there was no pomp and circumstance surrounding the visit. The world, and particularly the Brits, perceive our State reception of the British PM as a snub at the hands of Dear Leader Baruch O'Bummer. 

I would have to agree with them.

This is a subject I wouldn't usually write about at IBA, but I find it interesting that Barack Obama seemingly does not believe that our traditional "special relationship" with Britain is so necessary as the rest of us have always thought that it is.

Here's a roundup of posts from around the blogosphere.

Crittenden....

Wicked, Childish Or Dim?

Here’s a Brit who posits “Lady Macbeth” was behind the Obamas’ slighting of America’s staunchest ally. UK Telegraph again. That’s higher praise than Michelle deserves. His evidence goes back to her Princeton days, but he hit the mark before he got to that part: They did it because they could. In the most juvenile way possible, they wanted to show they’re in charge, things are different, they have other priorities, and besides, Britain needs to be punished for its Bush enablance. Either that or neither of them are really that bright. 

OK, a quick run through of foreign policy gaffes: snubbing Britain. Ineptly haggling with Russia. Being snubbed by Iran. Giving al Qaeda and Iran a target date to strategize around in Iraq, and treating our best generals dismissively in the process. The whole closing Guantanamo debacle. I know I missing something. We could spend all night toting up and categorizing missteps. Economic. Political. Reynolds is scratching his head just over the appintments. He’s lost count. Same question applies in each case. Wicked, childish or dim?

Topics: Obama

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:16 pm on Thursday, March 5, 2009

Tigerhawk's great suggestion for Americans...

Giftgate? 

By Charlottesvillain at 3/05/2009 02:24:00 PM 

The British papers are abuzz about the gift exchange that occurred between Gordon Brown and Barack Obama. Here's the lowdown: 

During his historic trip to Washington, Gordon Brown gave Barack Obama an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet - once called HMS President.

The unique present delighted Mr Obama because oak from the Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute, was carved to make a desk that already takes place in the Oval Office in the White House, after being presented by Britain to the US in 1880.

Mr Brown also took to Washington a framed commission for HMS Resolute, a vessel that came to mark Anglo-US peace when it was saved from ice packs by Americans and given to Queen Victoria.
He also gave a first edition set of the seven-volume classic biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.

And what did President Obama present the Prime Minister? 

For despite being leader of the world's most bountiful nation, President Obama handed over nothing more thought-provoking than 25 classic American films on DVD.
It was the equivalent of receiving a pair of socks from an unfamiliar aunt at Christmas - and a less-than-glowing affirmation of the UK-US bond.

This must be more of that new diplomacy we were promised. 

To quote a 1970s cartoon character (who I must refrain from identifying for reasons of sensitivity. Bonus points if you come up with it.): 

"No class." 

Update: 

We have a winner! Bonus points to Jeff Hawkins.

MORE from TigerHawk: For those of you who are inclined to apologize on behalf of our President, the postal address and fax number for 10 Downing Street are here. Or, alternatively, you can contact the British embassy in Washington here.

gateway....

Obama Stiffs Brits With 25 Set Classic Movie Package White House Gift

Perfect.
Michelle must have sent Rahmbo down to the 7-11 to pick through the movie basket. 
Bargain Basement Special-- Was $27.98 Now Only $19.99!

What an embarrassment.
The Obamas stiffed the Brits with a cheap 25 DVD movie package.
The Daily Mail reported:

As he headed back home from Washington, Gordon Brown must have rummaged through his party bag with disappointment.

Because all he got was a set of DVDs. 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.

Mr Brown is not thought to be a film buff, and his reaction to the box set is unknown. But it didn't really compare to the thoughtful presents he had brought along with him. 

The Prime Minister gave Mr Obama an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet.

Here's some advice for the Browns: Next time swing by Walgreens on the way into town.
Pick up a can of assorted nuts and a lava lamp.

posted by Gateway Pundit 

Brits Miffed With Slave Trade Obsessed Michelle Obama

Hope may finally be making a comeback but not in Great Britain.
The Brits are catching on to the Obamas.

As the American media continues to drool, the Brits are starting to take a closer look at Michelle Obama and don't like what they see.
BluegrassRedstate and The Telegraph reported:

We may just LURVE Michelle's fashion sense. But Michelle doesn't reciprocate our affection, one bit. Her broad-brush view of history associates Brits with the wicked white global hegemony responsible for the slave trade. Never mind that a white, Tory Englishman - William Wilberforce - brought the slave trade to an end. Judging by her record, Michelle does not make room for such subtle nuance.

Consider her notorious statement that: "For the first time in my adult life I am really proud of my country." Consider her (till-recently suppressed) Princeton thesis, "Princeton Educated Blacks And The Black Community."

In it she writes: "I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."

Here we see that she has mastered the authentic voice of grievance culture. She also - the thesis was written in 1985 - pre-empts the Macpherson report's ludicrous, catch-all definition of racism: "A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person." No matter how hard young Michelle's white undergraduate contemporaries try to be nice, it's not their behaviour that counts, but how Michelle feels.

Ouch.

posted by Gateway Pundit 

the exchanges THE CORNER...

He's Just Not That Into The Special Relationship   [Mark Hemingway]

It's the top story in our web-briefing but, if you haven't heard, the President gave U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown a gift of 25 DVDs of classic American films. Given enough exposure, no doubt Brown will soon develop a taste for the strange and provincial American cultural expression known as "cinema." I hear it's finally starting to catch on abroad. Now here are the gifts Brown gave Obama:

Mr Brown’s gifts included an ornamental desk pen holder made from the oak timbers of Victorian anti-slaver HMS Gannet, once named HMS President.

Mr Obama was so delighted he has already put it in pride of place in the Oval Office on the Resolute desk which was carved from timbers of Gannet’s sister ship, HMS Resolute.

Another treasure given to the U.S. President was the framed commission for HMS Resolute, a vessel that came to symbolise Anglo-US peace when it was saved from ice packs by Americans and given to Queen Victoria.

Finally, Mr Brown gave a first edition set of the seven-volume classic biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.

These gifts are even more impressive and thoughtful than these few paragraphs suggest, given the amazing story behind the Resolute and how it is a potent symbol of U.S.-U.K. goodwill. So Brown clearly outclassed Obama in that regard.

But I also love the symbolism of that final gift — Martin Gilbert's classic Churchill biography. If it seemed a bit tone deaf when Obama returned the Churchill bustthat had been in the White House, well it now appears that no less a figure than the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is subtly sending a message that Obama should better understand the historical importance of one of his country's greatest leaders. Well played.

UPDATE — a reader writes:

It would be funny if the DVDs Mr Obama gave Mr Brown were Region 1 NTSC and therefore not compatible with the UK where DVDs are region 2 and video format is PAL.

I would love to see someone on Fleet Street ask Brown whether the President gave Gordon brown DVDs that are not playable in England. That could prove amusing.

03/05 07:34 PM/

Shunning Albion   [Jonah Goldberg]

I know this has been discussed a little bit, but after reading that horrifying post from Mark Hemingway, I'm really begining to wonder why  the Obama administration is treating the Prime Minister of Britain so shabbily. Some of the snubs might just fumbles of a rookie with no real foreign policy experience (no teas with foreign dignitaries for him!). But it's hard to believe that the cumulative brush-off was entirely accidental. Is it that the White House thinks Brown is doomed and so it doesn't want to be perceived as hitching its wagon to him? Do they dislike him because Brown supported the war? That's hard to believe given much of Obama's cabinet supported the war. Could it be that they want a conservative Prime Minister in the UK so that he can be a transatlantic post-partisan? I'd be curious what our in-house Brit's think.

03/05 08:49 PM/

Gordon blue   [Mark Steyn]

Jonah, there are two possible explanations for the humiliations inflicted by the Obama Administration on Mr  Brown:

One is that (as several alleged experts have told me) in this area the president genuinely differs from his predecessors. Take that Martin Gilbert biography of Churchill the Prime Minister gave him: I'll wager Obama will never read a word of it. To him, Sir Winston is not the great wartime leader, the indispensable man in civilization's darkest hour (1940-41), but the post-war leader responsible for the ruthless suppression of the Mau-Mau rebellion in his father's Kenya. Churchill is not the way to Obama's heart.

And, in a broader sense, he has no particular attachment to "the west" - to the transatlantic partnership, the Anglo-American relationship, any of it. As I touched on in NR the other week, to his admirers he represents a cooler post-western "hybridity". And, given where he chose to spend his entire adult life, that seems entirely likely.

The simpler explanation, which I find more persuasive, is that he's just too narcissistic: He's the star and these foreign prime ministers are rather dreary extras. And unfortunately he's not a good enough actor to conceal his lack of interest in them. And his courtiers take pretty much the same line, which is why it never occurred to them that some no-name Brit would be insulted at not getting the multi-flagged joint presser.

(For what it's worth, I heard similar reports of the president's remoteness on his flying visit to Ottawa, where the only person he seemed to get any kind of kick out of was Her Majesty's vicereine, Michaelle Jean, who happens to be a fine-looking woman, if you're into leftie babes.)

03/05 11:59 PM//

 VIDEO LINK at end of post...

A post-mortem on the Gordon Brown visit: Round One

March 5th, 2009

The photo points to a double fail: Gordon Brown’s for tucking his trousers into his socks (inexplicably, since he didn’t ride his bike to the White House), and the US State Department’s Chief of Protocol’s, who apparently was too polite to point out to Gordon about his fashion statement.

Good lord.

At least he managed to untuck by the time the press conference started:

The trip, which was intended to boost Gordon Brown’s domestic and international standing by urging Anglo-American leadership to right the global economy(admittedly a very costly proposition) was a flop. Aside from showing up with a 7-volume bio of Churchill to gift Obama - who had just sent Churchill packing last month - and knighting Ted Kennedy,

• Brown didn’t get the commitment he sought from the Obama administration,
• the British media correctly assessed the White House’s treatment of Brown as rude,
• the White House turned down requests for the flags and lectern treatment that was standard for visits by the British Prime Minister, a highly symbolic affront,
• Mrs. Obama snubbed Mrs. Brown, who had personally chosen thoughtful gifts for the Obama daughters.

Yes, the plan Brown read out to Congress would not be in America’s best interest. Yes, Brown made a mistake in thiking that he could get a boost by coming to the US. Brown was clueless from the get-go. He made the kind of errors that make anyone look like a dufus. This series of mistakes might end up giving his chances at home a final fatal blow, no matter how much money he prints at home.

However, the horrible treatment at the hands of the White House signals a turnaround in the US’s alliance with England.

This is a colossal error by the Obama administration:

When His Lordship [Lord Monckton] finished analyzing the Obama-Brown summit, I asked him just what the meeting and the maintenance of the “special relationship” would cost. If people in the U.S. aren’t careful, he replied without hesitation, “it will cost America its leadership of the free world.”

If Obama thinks he can count on the support of the French and the Germans, he’s in for a rude surprise.

Second round: the April’s G20 meeting in London.

UPDATE
Moe Lane looks at “special relationship” (old formulation) and “special partnership” (new formulation), and people who are unfortunately aware of their intelligence.

Larwyn update:
Larwyn’s on top of the story and sent these links,
Beware Obama’s Bearing Gifts (Part 2)
Obama the Cheapskate: 25 DVDs for Gordon Brown? A particularly crass gift, considering that Gordon Brown doesn’t have much time to watch movies and can’t play American DVDs on British players. There are signs at Heathrow telling you that - but then, Obama doesn’t fly commercial, doesn’t he?
Unbelievable.

More:
Via Em, the lamest NetFlix queue ever recorded:

Movies in the box-set produced for the White House by the American Film Institute:
1. Citizen Kane
2. The Godfather
3. Casablanca
4. Raging Bull
5. Singing In The Rain
6. Gone With The Wind
7. Lawrence Of Arabia
8. Schindler’s List
9. Vertigo
10. The Wizard Of Oz
11. City Lights
12. The Searchers
13. Star Wars: Episode IV
14. Psycho
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey
16. Sunset Boulevard
17. The Graduate
18. The General
19. On The waterfront
20. It’s A Wonderful Life
21. China Town
22. Some Like It Hot
23. The Grapes Of Wrath
24. ET: The Extra Terrestrial
25. To Kill A Mocking Bird.