Barack Obama gives classy non-DVD gift to Australian prime minister

Telegraph Blogs (U.K.) ^ | March 25, 2009 | Toby Harnden

[Schnucki]

Poor old Gordon Brown. While he was being savaged in Strasbourg, the Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd was getting a terribly thoughtful present from President Barack Obama - a rare original printing of sheet music, the "Anacreontic Song", by John Smith, known these days as the "Star Spangled Banner".

This was, as the Aussie press was not slow to point out, in stark contrast to "the lousy gift of DVDs Obama gave Brown" during his recent visit.

Rudd had given Obama a personally signed and inscribed copy of Thomas Keneally's biography of Abraham Lincoln. Not bad, but not quite as good as the three gifts that Brown had placed at the feet of the new president.

The Aussie press were further cheered by a declaration of love from Obama in response to a shouted question in the Rose Garden.

White House pool reporter Mike Madden of Salon described what happened after yesetrday's Oval Office conflab between the two men:

Once the meeting ended, your pool dashed around the Rose Garden to watch POTUS escort Rudd to his car. They walked out of the Oval Office a few minutes later, POTUS gesturing toward the swing set at one point. An Australian reporter called out, "Mr. President, any plans to visit Australia?" POTUS took the bait. "I would love to visit Australia," he said. "Of course, I have been to Australia quite a bit. I love the Australian people." The reporter who asked the question was instantly popular with the rest of the Aussies. "Good on you, brother," one of his colleagues congratulated him.

[Beaten Valve]

Rudd should have given Obama a DVD of “Crocodile Dundee”...

[JDW11235]

This is becoming more and more ridiculous.

[KTM rider]

just like the Kenyan to give away bits of our american heritage to strangers,

"here take my liberty bell, I got no use for it"

[Caipirabob]

So far Obama has exceeded all of my expectations for idiocy. He's never failed to excel in that arena, except for one thing...

I'm waiting for Obama to give a head of state the old "Pedro in a Barrel" from "South of the Border" in NC. The one where you lift the barrel that Pedro's wearing and he has a surprise for you...

"Es muy grande, Prime Minister!"

[BuffaloJack]

Of course Teleprompter-Boy gave the Aussie a really good gift this time. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out that he now has a cabinet level post of ‘Secretary of Gift Selection for Visiting Dignitaries”.
O’s keepers wouldn’t let him make that mistake twice.