After taking flak for returning a bust of Winston Churchill, President Obama is giving some British mementos prominent homes in and near the Oval Office.
In a 10-minute phone call Wednesday, Obama thanked British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for dropping off the gifts Tuesday when he visited the White House, according to an official release. The unusually-detailed readout on the call said Obama has put a pen holder taken from the HMS Gannet on his Oval Office desk, known as the Resolute desk. The statement also said a first-edition biography of Churchill, the legendary World War II British premier, has been placed in the president’s private study just outside the Oval.
The British press had interpreted the return of the Churchill bust, which sat in the Oval Office for nearly seven years before being returned, as a signal that Obama did not value his relationship with Brown and Britain as highly as President Bush valued his ties to Brown’s predecessor, Tony Blair. Obama aides said the notion was ridiculous, but they have since bent over backwards to demonstrate Obama’s friendliness and appreciation for Brown.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19632.html .
Obama's Gifts To Brown Irk British Media
All Things Considered, March 6, 2009 · President Barack Obama's gift of a set of DVDs to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown appalled the British media, furious about the lack of traditional protocol afforded to Brown while he was in Washington.
Iain Martin, a columnist and blogger for the Daily Telegraph, wrote that he found Obama to be rudeness personified toward Britain.
Martin tells NPR's Robert Siegel that Britons are used to a full news conference when their prime minister is in town.
"Only at the last moment was it agreed that there would be a small press conference, and, I think, it was read as a metaphor for the concern that Obama really just didn't like having the Brits in town," Martin says. "Yes, he's dealing with the biggest global crisis in 70 years.
"Still, it would have been nice if he could have welcomed Brown with just a hint more enthusiasm."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101561670
BY David Saltonstall
Daily News Senior Correspondent
You'd think President Obama had booted the Brits out of America — again!
London newspapers are howling over a string of alleged snubs by Obama to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown during his visit to Washington last week — including a squabble over presidential gift-giving.
"President Obama has been rudeness personified towards Britain," sniffed The Daily Telegraph Friday. "His handling of the visit of the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to Washington was appalling."
The list of complaints is longer than the Magna Carta: Obama canceled a planned, podium-to-podium news conference with Brown (actually, none was ever scheduled); he recently removed a bust of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill from the Oval Office; and he gave gifts to the Brown family that were "about as exciting as a pair of socks," one Fleet Street wag whined.
That last bit might be true. After Brown presented Obama with a pen holder crafted from the timbers of the 19th century British warship HMS President (whose sister ship, HMS Resolute, provided the wood for the Oval Office's desk), Obama offered up ... 25 DVDs of American movie classics.
"Oh, give me strength," wrote one appalled Daily Telegraph staffer. "We do have television and DVD stores on this side of the Atlantic."
Never mind that Brown is blind in one eye and may have a hard time seeing the stars in "2001: A Space Odyssey," or that American DVDs are usually incompatible with British players.
Equally insulting, decided the Times of London, was Michelle Obama's "solipsistic" and "inherently dismissive" gifts to the Browns' two little boys, Fraser and John.
The offending souvenirs? Toy models of Marine One, the President's helicopter — gifts no doubt plucked from the White House gift shop at the last minute, The Times decided.
Brown's wife, Sarah, by contrast arrived with dresses for Sasha and Malia from the UK's trendy Top Shop (with matching necklaces) and a selection of books by British authors.
"A bit of thought had clearly gone into choosing them," crowed The Daily Mail. "Lovely."
The Brits have blown up the alleged snubs into new evidence that the "special relationship" between the two nations is no longer quite so special.
The hand-wringing began last month when Obama removed a bust of Churchill from the Oval Office and replaced it with his hero, Abraham Lincoln.
The Times of London immediately traced Obama's "disdain" for Churchill to Kenya, where Obama's grandfather was caught up in the Churchill-led suppression of the 1950s Mau Mau Rebellion that left thousands of
Kenyans dead.
"It's not surprising that Mr. Obama didn't want Churchill looking over his shoulder," explained one correspondent.
At this point, the two sides seem to be in full repair mode. The White House let it be known that Obama and Brown shared a chummy phone call as the prime minister was headed home.
And Friday, it was revealed that Obama would be granted a private audience with Queen Elizabeth when he is in London next month.
Quipped one reader of The Sun, "I hope Her Majesty likes DVDs."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/03/06/2009-03-06_london_aghast_at_president_obama_over_gi.htmlU.K. leader can't view Obama's gift
The movie industry's digital protection schemes have turned President Obama's present for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown into little more than a set of coasters.British newspapers earlier this month made hay out of the supposedly unequal exchange of gifts between the two leaders during Brown's visit to Washington. Brown gave an ornamental pen holder with an indirect tie to the Oval Office desk — both items were made from the timber of sister ships — and a first-edition set of a seven-volume biography about Winston Churchill.
Obama responded with a DVD set featuring 25 classic American movies. "About as exciting as a pair of socks," declared The Daily Mail.
Now it turns out Brown can't play the discs because of region-specific limitations, The Daily Telegraph reports.
DVD players are coded to limit themselves to material meant for specific geographic areas. The United States and Canada are Region 1. Western and Central Europe are Region 2.
Players sold in one region aren't supposed to play discs sold in another. Had the same sort of protection applied to Brown's gift, Obama would need a special key sold only in Europe to open the Churchill books.
People willing to experiment with hacks can go online to find relatively easy ways around region-coding prohibitions on discs. But a spokesman for the prime minister referred a Telegraph writer to the White House for "technical assistance."http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2009/03/uk-leader-cant.html
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