Opinion: Goodies update on Barack and Michelle Obama’s royal visit to Britain
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A quick update on the official Anglo-American gift situation. (Video below.)
So much of what happens at these G20, Q3, B9 and R47 summit meetings is ceremonial or pre-cooked weeks in advance by the leaders’ staffs.
Does anyone honestly believe, for instance, thatBarack Obama in his meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, ‘Hey, don’t worry about your invasion of Georgia; I was on vacation in Hawaii. Why don’t we re-open talks about nuclear weapons?’
And Dmitry repeats what he hears Vladimir Putin say into his earpiece, ‘Sure, OK. Talking’s great. And free.’
So summit spectators are left to focus on the more important things that happen there, like what gifts the leaders’ staffs gave those leaders to give to each other.
You may remember, it got a little pouty and murky in the British press a few weeks ago when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited Washington and presented the new American president with....
...an historic desk pen set made from the timbers of the sister ship to the one that’s been the presidential desk in the Oval Office all these years.
In return, Obama gave Brown no full-blown news conference, just a 22-minute photo op in the Oval Office. Obama returned to Brown a bust of Winston Churchill, which had been on loan on proud display in that Oval Office for years, a toy helicopter and a set of two dozen famous American movie DVD’s whose format does not happen to work on British DVD players. Thanks so much for dropping by.
Perhaps Brown can re-gift the DVD’s to Mayor Bloomberg at the UN this fall.
Other than that the Obama gifts were perfectly suitable.
Well today, before the exciting dinner with the creator of Harry Potter, as The Ticket reported earlier, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were officially received at Buckingham Palace. At a news conference beforehand, the president added a few gracious words about how excited he and his wife were anticipating the palace session. And the media audience laughed out loud.
Anyway, the giant Obamas had a grand visit with the miniature royal family. The cucumber sandwiches tasted a lot like bread and cucumbers. And the Obamas gave the Queen an engraved iPod with video of her last visit to the States.
The British monarch has seen 12 American presidents come and go; she never actually
met Lyndon Johnson, which may be just as well as the tall Texan had a habit of picking up little things by their ears. The British media (H/T to Jimmy Orr) pointed out the Queen already has such video, as well as an iPod, though an older version. So the new one will be great when the 83-year-old queen goes jogging on her royal treadmill.
In return, Her Majesty gave the Obamas an autographed photograph of herself and Prince Philip in a silver frame. Which the White House can return on Brown’s next visit there.
-- Andrew Malcolm
No gifts necessary; just click here to register for instant Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item, just as the British Prime Minister and French President’s offices have done.