The Queen's iPod
*rant mode on*
I'm sure people have heard of this already. Obama gave the Queen of England an iPod. How inappropriate! International diplomatic crisis! Obama is obviously over his head with this whole presidency thing.
Except it isn't true. Look at the facts: Obama gave the Queen an antique Rodgers and Hammerstein songbook that was signed by Rodgers; a very valuable antique, a great piece of American cultural history and supposedly Rodgers is one of the Queen's favorite composers. Then in addition he gave her an iPod Touch to replace her old iPod nano (which she supposedly enjoyed very much) filled with Rogers and Hammerstein songs and videos of her last trip to America. So we have a valuable piece of American history coupled with an example of cutting edge American technology tied into the personal taste and experience of the Queen. How is this not a great, diplomatic, well thought out and appropriate gift?
Of course the "story" the press is selling is that they gave the Queen something they sent an aide off to buy from the airport gift shop at the last minute, and it plays so well after the Gordan Brown DVD incident. But this is such a non-story, there is nothing there at all, and please please please can the press keep their eye on the ball with the g20 summit? I know international meetings like this are just so complicated and boring and rarely generate a good headline, but this one is really, really, really important. Our closest allies are really pissed that their economies are tanking because of a mess that we created, we need to have a coordinated plan if we are going to prevent global trade from falling (further) off a cliff and there's a strong possibility we'll be borrowing another trillion from the Chinese in order to keep the EU solvent. There will be decisions made at this meeting that will impact all of us, possibly for the rest of our lives. So go ahead and criticize Obama for taking on too many policy changes at once, criticize him for not laying out a clear enough plan for a recovery but don't criticize him for something that didn't happen. Dear god don't let "Obama doesn't know how to give gifts" become this year's "Al Gore invented the Internet".
I'm sure people have heard of this already. Obama gave the Queen of England an iPod. How inappropriate! International diplomatic crisis! Obama is obviously over his head with this whole presidency thing.
Except it isn't true. Look at the facts: Obama gave the Queen an antique Rodgers and Hammerstein songbook that was signed by Rodgers; a very valuable antique, a great piece of American cultural history and supposedly Rodgers is one of the Queen's favorite composers. Then in addition he gave her an iPod Touch to replace her old iPod nano (which she supposedly enjoyed very much) filled with Rogers and Hammerstein songs and videos of her last trip to America. So we have a valuable piece of American history coupled with an example of cutting edge American technology tied into the personal taste and experience of the Queen. How is this not a great, diplomatic, well thought out and appropriate gift?
Of course the "story" the press is selling is that they gave the Queen something they sent an aide off to buy from the airport gift shop at the last minute, and it plays so well after the Gordan Brown DVD incident. But this is such a non-story, there is nothing there at all, and please please please can the press keep their eye on the ball with the g20 summit? I know international meetings like this are just so complicated and boring and rarely generate a good headline, but this one is really, really, really important. Our closest allies are really pissed that their economies are tanking because of a mess that we created, we need to have a coordinated plan if we are going to prevent global trade from falling (further) off a cliff and there's a strong possibility we'll be borrowing another trillion from the Chinese in order to keep the EU solvent. There will be decisions made at this meeting that will impact all of us, possibly for the rest of our lives. So go ahead and criticize Obama for taking on too many policy changes at once, criticize him for not laying out a clear enough plan for a recovery but don't criticize him for something that didn't happen. Dear god don't let "Obama doesn't know how to give gifts" become this year's "Al Gore invented the Internet".