Isolating America, One Ally At A Time

While Barack the Obamessiah is cozying up to our enemies -- various terrorist organizations and the nations that support them, most of whom have sworn to see our annihilation -- he is also alienating our allies. For decades, the U.K. has been the most closely allied nation to America. It is tradition that gifts are exchanged between the heads of nations the first time they meet, and between close allies those gifts are usually thoughtful and meaningful.

In the recent first meeting between Obama and the Prime Minister of the U.K., Gordon Brown, our neighbors from across the pond didn't hold back:

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

The unique present delighted Mr Obama because oak from the Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute, was carved to make a desk that has sat in the Oval Office in the White House since 1880.

Mr Brown also handed over a framed commission for HMS Resolute and a first edition of the seven-volume biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.

In addition, Mr Brown and his wife showered gifts on the Obama children giving Sasha and Malia an outfit each from Topshop and six children's books by British authors which are shortly to be published in America.

So, what did the Obamas give to the Browns in return? In a sign of utter classlessness and childish stupidity, they presented the Prime Minister of the U.K. with a boxed set of 25 DVDs:

As if that wasn't bad enough, those DVDs were encoded as Region 1 DVDs, meaning they were unplayable in the U.K., which uses region 2 (unless they have a multi-region player). Still, Brown is not known to be a film buff. Oh, and they were standard DVD format - the Obamas didn't even spring for Blu-Ray versions. They did generously throw in a couple models of the presidential helicopter for the Browns' two sons, though.

The European media is pretty irritated about this slight, especially since it's the second one (a couple weeks ago Obama returned a bust of Winston Churchill, a gift from their nation to ours, that was in the Oval Office). Here's a sample:

Today, they’re calling him “rudeness personified”.

They say his rudeness to Gordon Brown was “appalling”.

And they’re outraged over the DVD box set Obama gave Brown, because, as they note, they “have television and video stores over here”.

Hillbuzz reports helpfully that there's even an office within the White House specifically for gift exchanges. I guess Obama didn't get that memo. But here's the catch, with which I heartily agree:

But, the British, on some level, are getting their just desserts with all of this.

The Brits were some of Obama’s loudest cheerleaders overseas during the General Election (though they were solidly behind Hillary Clinton in the primaries). They made quite a spectacle of themselves at Obama’s rally in London. They absolutely couldn’t wait for him to be the next president.

Even though they knew absolutely nothing about him.

So, as his true colors start to emerge, just 46 days into the 1,461-day Golden Age of Obama, we have little sympathy for anyone out there who feels slighted or snubbed by someone who’s slighted and snubbed repeatedly on his rise to the top. It’s not his fault, or anyone else’s but your own, that you never bothered to notice who he is until now.

Because, as we keep saying, Gordon Brown was lucky to even get a set of DVDs.

Frankly, we’re surprised Obama didn’t just hand Brown copies of The Audacity of Hope and Dreams of My Father. Unsigned, uninscribed, straight out of a cardboard box by the White House door.

Because that’s just who he is, and for the next four years, everyone just has to accept that.

How does the saying go? 'Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.'

Bingo.

Still, it's not wise to alienate your best friend during dangerous times, you know? But don't worry, the Obamas have things under control. There was a very good reason for the slight:

Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been “overwhelmed” by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest.

British officials, meanwhile, admit that the White House and US State Department staff were utterly bemused by complaints that the Prime Minister should have been granted full-blown press conference and a formal dinner, as has been customary. They concede that Obama aides seemed unfamiliar with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister. …

Allies of Mr Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president’s surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.

A well-connected Washington figure, who is close to members of Mr Obama’s inner circle, expressed concern that Mr Obama had failed so far to “even fake an interest in foreign policy”. …

The American source said: “Obama is overwhelmed. There is a zero sum tension between his ability to attend to the economic issues and his ability to be a proactive sculptor of the national security agenda.

“That was the gamble these guys made at the front end of this presidency and I think they’re finding it a hard thing to do everything.”

Excuse me? He's 'overwhelmed'?? He's surprised that it's busy being President? Is he for real?

Didn't he just spend the past two years on the campaign trail looking down his extremely long nose at the Bush administration as being incompetent, and insisting that he would show the kind of judgment that this country needs? Remember all that? It was crap, apparently.

Ace of Spades offers this analysis:

This excuse is weak coming from a UPS customer satisfaction representative.

But then, this is the first real job Obama's ever held, so I guess we'll just have to bear with him as he gets on the job training at being at an actual job.

Maybe it would help if he cut down back on the late-night parties in the White House.

Powerline adds this:

And why in the world does the White House--let alone the State Department!--not have someone who is "[familiar] with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister?" If true, this is rank incompetence.

To some extent, the Brown fiasco might be attributed to Obama's failure to "even fake an interest in foreign policy." (Just think, by the way, how much work he will have to do when he realizes that as President, he has to deal with both domestic and foreign policy!) But I'm not sure that's the whole explanation. The Telegraph's story contains this suggestion that Obama's slight of the British Prime Minister may have been intentional, at least in part:

The real views of many in Obama administration were laid bare by a State Department official involved in planning the Brown visit, who reacted with fury when questioned by The Sunday Telegraph about why the event was so low-key.

The official dismissed any notion of the special relationship, saying: "There's nothing special about Britain. You're just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn't expect special treatment."

Wow. The sheer gall of this is extremely disturbing! If he keeps this up, the only people who approve of what Obama is doing to America will be our enemies.

Of course, that's what some of us have been expecting since well before the election. Too bad we were right.

There's my two cents.