The medal presented by the Saudi king to BHO is the King Adbul Aziz Order of Merit. According to this source, it is awarded:
For meritorious service while in government office, for extraordinary deeds of bravery, and for other deeds of service to the state.Yahoo! Canada Finance states the following about the medal:
Certified jewelers at Cash4Gold, America's #1 gold buyer direct from the general public, have closely examined photographs of the gift. Assuming the necklace and medallion are crafted of solid 18K gold, the company estimates that the Order of Merit contains as much as $25,000 worth of gold.According to the Reuter's blog Front Row Washington:
Considering that the piece confers Saudi Arabia’s highest honor on President Obama, and that it was bestowed personally by the King on the President as part of an historic and widely reported Presidential visit, the symbolic value of the piece most likely surpasses its melt value. Melt value is the value of the actual precious metal contained in an item and that a refinery can extract and recycle. Melt value does not account for the decorative, artistic, historic, or sentimental value of a given item.
[...]
Upon receiving the Order of Merit, President Obama reportedly exclaimed, “"Goodness gracious. That's something there."
Bush, too, was awarded one on his first visit to the kingdom. It just took the former president seven years — till January 2008 — to visit Saudi Arabia.
We could note that
Obama managed to get his in under five months, at only his second meeting with the king.But any attempt to make a big deal out of BHO's receiving the medal and bowing a bit to receive it is Obama Derangement Syndrome.
Additional reading: "Here's Your Gift, Mr. President. Please Stick Your Neck Out."
5 comments:
Sure would seem so. You have to incline your head when a medal is being placed around your neck. Either that or they call in a basketball player to do the presenting. He could try for a 3-point shot instead of just a slam dunk of course...
The King actually made the effort to place the award on Bush's shoulders/neck.
Whereas, Obama remarking:
"Goodness gracious. That's something there."
makes it appear that our not-quite-ready-for prime-time POTUS was quite impressed and perhaps a bit overly eager to wear that damn bling, as he placed it on his own neck/shoulders in the image provided.
Thank you for this--and for the warning concerning ODS-one has to stick one's neck out to receive such a splendid gift---
C-CS
CS,
I can push the envelope and do a lot of satirizing of BHO. I'm sure that, at time, some will accuse me of ODS.
But I think it bears remembering that we shouldn't go hurling accusations that turn out to be untrue.
Heh. He's going to pawn it to pay off the Prosecutors that dropped the Black Panther case. . .
I don't have as much trouble with this bow as I do the earlier one. In either case keep that neck stuck out long enough, Mr. Obama, and the Sword of Islam will come down on it.
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