LONDON – It’s not every day the American president’s driver is told to move his bulletproof car.
But Queen Elizabeth II’s handlers made the request Wednesday after President Barack Obama’s reinforced Cadillac limousine was found to be blocking the garden entrance driveway at Buckingham Palace. After it was moved, Jaguars carrying Prince Charles and other members of the royal family pulled up for the queen’s reception for leaders attending Thursday’s G-20 summit.
Obama and his wife, Michelle — wearing a black and white dress, pearls and a black coat — were two of the first dignitaries to meet the queen, who wore a salmon-colored dress and her trademark pearls.
During their private meeting, President Obama and the first lady gave the queen a personalized iPod with video footage of her 2007 visit to Washington and Virginia. She was also given a rare songbook signed by composer Richard Rodgers.
In return the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, gave the Obamas a signed portrait of themselves.
As far as I’m concerned he could have given her a side of beef……but really, an iPod? Did he load it with his personal music choices or what? Oh, brother.
#2.
Queen of my Double-Wide Trailer – Sammy Kershaw
Killer Queen – Queen
Queen Bee – Grand Funk Railroad
The Queen got a better gift than the Obama’s. Great a picture of the crusty old Queen and her squeeze. Jolly good show!!!
i find it suspect…giving an electronic
device..esp one that by and large is used
with a subscription service..no doubt it’s use
can be tracked by it’s serial number..
to what end..? -so the RIAA could finally extort money from someone who can afford to pay.. 😛
-i would have put something unique on it..why would she want yet another copy of her “politicking”
no doubt obama uploaded some personal notes on it like “please help me..congress is making an utter fool out me..”
-either that, or it has the numbers to a few swiss accounts so the queen can get her cut
of “the money”
the whole gift thing seems rather silly to me.
if i were obama, i would have either given her something i made myself, -or a plant of some sort.
*shrug*
-s
All of them should just drop the whole damn gift thing. It is like a family who allows Xmas to go overboard. You can’t win.
#5 Well, honestly, you’re not being fair. Let’s be clear, Jimmy Carter and BO are tied for #1. Give BO time though….
Did they run out of crap trinkets at the Whitehouse gift shop?
In return the Queen should have given Obama some old Princess Diana dinner plates they had laying around.
The iPod thing I don’t give a damn. The queen likes them and that signed portrait she gave the Obama’s, it’s the same one she gives to all the other visiting heads of state.
As for Michelle breaking protocol, nobody gives a shit. I think we sent a clear message about that back in 1776. Besides, the monarchy has changed so much since the revolution that the British monarchy is nothing more than a circus side show these days. But, Michelle should have known better. It’s the President that goes first, just like the queen comes first before her husband.
REALLY!
Isn’t about time that all this presidential posturing, Speeches full of garnered sayings that others made (long) before and generally unbelievable acting like the Savious of the World stopped and the idiots promoting it and sucking on it were just seen for what they are.
Cardboard men.
Just what the hell has Obama done?
As far as I can see, bugger all except glory in his position. He may be the most genuine President ever – unfortunately there is an all too ready lack of supportive substance to all this.
I went to the Palace yesterday, it’s a huge site, one of the very biggest in London. It had a policement stationed every 50 metres.
As for parking the Presidential Limo across the gates. That’s just a display of arrogance on the part of his driver, an attempt to make clear that the law (and good manners) just didn’t apply here. Doesn’t do the average American much credit does it? Not if this is your representative. Less of the presentation and much more action/substance would be in order here. Afraid these ‘leaders’ are really not worth the money to me – not the unwarranted publicity they receive.
All this of course, if I haven’t made it clear, applied equally to Brown, Sarkozy, Merkel and the rest.
Plastic imitations of real leaders of men.
Screw the old bag! I remember when I was in the US Navy aboard the USS Ranger, back in the 80s, She came to visit our ship and of course the whole ship had to perpare, paint and polish everything. Days of extra work so the ship would be as squared away as possible. So the day of the visit she passes on the tour, oh well. Still we all went to the flight deck in dress uniform to form up. The captain gave a moderately long speech and then gave the queen a copy of the ships bell. She stepped up to the podium, cleared her throat in that quirky way she has and said ‘thank you’. That was it, all that work so this dried up old piece of fluff could say ‘thank you’. I still can’t get the smell of Brasso out of my head.
FTN – FTQ
Come on. This was posted on April Fools Day. Not even a fool would give that as a gift to the Queen.
I call BS.
A rare song book signed by a composer is a pretty dignified gift. Hopefully he learned his lesson after he pissed off England with DVDs that wouldn’t play.
One wonders if he gave toy helicopters to the Queen’s children this time. The iPod was a little kitschy though.
Small minds get upset over the smallest things.
Wasn’t this technically a violation of federal copyright law? MP3s ARE NOT TRANSFERRABLE (personal use only). The federal government broke it’s own (silly) copyright law, then escalated it to an international violation by transporting the MP3s across borders!
My point isn’t that this is Obama’s fault. It actually shows the absurdity of the current copyright code for digital content. The fact that any normal citizen could have the government and the RIAA breathing down their necks for such a harmless, sharing, human action demonstrates how out of touch the system is.
BO simply thinks he’s above it all. He may be #2 on this incompetent list behind Carter, but no lower than that. Not out out of the last 44 POTUSes anyway.
#46 & 47,
Let’s see, the right wing nuts ruined the economy and now they complain because Obama is fixing it.
Can’t you losers get a life?
#46, Copyrighted material may be purchased as a gift for anyone. There is nothing illegal or immoral about that. What is immoral is blaming Obama for shit you have no concept on.
>Of course had Bush done this, it would be world wide outrage, and would be front page on every liberal newspaper on the country.
Just like if they had given Condi Rice’s number, and it was to an escort service.
#21, Robart,
Nope, this is about it. Libs & Dems vs. Cons. & Repubs. Choose a side and denigrate to your heart’s content.
My bad, it was a phone-sex line that the Obama Adminsitration gave out as Hillary’s number.
http://tinyurl.com/hillho
He didn’t just give her an Ipod, it had video of the queen’s visits, as well as Obama’s speeches, and the tunes on the Ultimate Broadway CD.
How can you be so critical?
Should have got her an ironing board cover instead.
Bob #31,
I seriously doubt that Obama picks out his own gifts for occasions like this.
Most likely, this was all pre-arranged between the Whitehouse staff and the Queen’s staff.
And, of course, this is probaly one more bogus “scandal,” most likely cooked-up by Fox or some other professional prevaricators.
DVDs to Prime Minister, ipod to the Queen… obviously we have First Cheapskates in the White House 🙂