Comment from c3
Time April 2, 2009 at 12:32 am PDT

Well at least it wasn’t an iPod “loaded with video footage and photographs” of his 2008 Presidential campaign.

PS Only the 8G iPod. C’mon think big. She must not be downloaded gobs of songs from uTorrent let alone any movies from the Web.

Comment from marc
Time April 2, 2009 at 3:37 am PDT

I’d rather have the iPod, even if they do lock my machine up courtesy of iTunes. Besides, we’re in a depression. Frugality counts!

Comment from JImmie
Time April 2, 2009 at 4:38 am PDT

Actually, c3, it kind of was. It was loaded with photos from his inauguration, his speech from the 2004 DNC, and his Inaugural speech.

Comment from John
Time April 2, 2009 at 6:30 am PDT

How is a signed picture of the queen and her husband a better gift than an iPod loaded with footage of Obama and the Queen? Give me the iPod any day.

Comment from Claudia
Time April 2, 2009 at 9:39 am PDT

According to the Daily Telegraph article I read, yes Obama gave the Queen an iPod. It doesn’t mention that it has videos of his, though I would expect it does. It apparently DOES have footage of the Queens own visit to Virginia in 2007. He also gave her a rare songbook signed by Richard Rodgers.

Not exactly a Ming Dynasty vase, but I think a relatively respectable gift. Quite frankly, I think it’s a good deal better gift than an autographed picture. I also think the whole gift-gate thing is absurd.

[add on]: Apparently the Queen did already have an iPod, but I have read that it’s from 2005. In that case it’s not an iPod Touch. As the proud owner of an iPod Touch I can assure you that it is a universe away from other iPods. If the Queen likes her iPod, she’ll love this one. Certainly she’ll have more use for it than antique furniture, rugs or vases.

Comment from Michael van der Galien
Time April 2, 2009 at 10:07 am PDT

Read the post people:

Her Royal Highness bequeathed to the Obamas one of the earliest known copies of William Shakespeare’s Henry V. She also presented him with the framed orginal sheet music of John Newton’s “Amazing Grace.” To the Obama daughters, the Queen gave a dollhouse-sized replica of Windsor Castle with a functioning train station in the year of the compound. They also received a prize Shetland pony. Mrs. Obama was given a ruby ring commissioned and worn by Queen Victoria.

Comment from Claudia
Time April 2, 2009 at 12:10 pm PDT

Michael, that could all be true, but the problem is that your source is NRO’s Jonah Golberg. Which would be fine, if all the other news outlets were reporting the same thing. Except they aren’t. All the (not rabidly anti-Obama) reporters mention only that the Queen gave him a photo. No dollhouses, no Shakespeare. Jonah doesn’t cite HIS source at all of course and a search for the text only reveals a bunch of NRO-type blogs. You’ve been April Fooled, Michael, I’m afraid.

Comment from C Stanley
Time April 2, 2009 at 1:50 pm PDT

What I find irritating in all of these gestures is that they seem to have an undercurrent of pushing pop culture into mainstream, an attempt to make cheap iconic cultural things more valuable than they really are. To me it seems generational- although Obama and I are contemporaries, he seems bound and determined to complete the dumbing down of our culture, and that’s what bugs me.

Initially with the DVDs I thought it must be some young staff member who doesn’t get it- but at this point (the gifts, along with appearances on Leno, and Gibbs’ style of rhetoric engaging talk show hosts and pseudojournalists instead of staying above the fray), it appears deliberate.

Comment from Claudia
Time April 2, 2009 at 2:43 pm PDT

Maybe it is generational C Stanley, but quite frankly I see no “dumbing down” involved in the gift. I am of the younger generation, but I happen to think that the iPod is a pretty great gadget. It’s actually a gift for the queen and not some mantelpiece item that she will accept and never touch again. British press says that she’s fond of her current iPod and the one she got is a far superior machine.

I have nothing against “mantelpiece” gifts mind you, but I think that a more personal gift is better. The queen gave him a photograph, not exactly some priceless cultural item and a lot less useful than an iPod.

The real upshot though is that I don’t care much who gave who what, and I’ll bet you that at the end of the day they care even less. In Spain we say that these things are “pan y circo” (bread and circus; refers to the Roman custom of coliseum games where bread was given out to the masses), distractions that keep the commoners occupied and gossiping while the powerful get on with their business.

Comment from Brainded
Time April 2, 2009 at 3:23 pm PDT

Barak(I have a judgment)Obama. Doesn’t get it. While it might be 2009 and the little people have taken over. The little people have not taken over in the Queen of England’s castle.

This is his continual narcissism shining through.

1. inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity.
2. Psychoanalysis. erotic gratification derived from admiration of one’s own physical or mental attributes,

Many of us continue to question his judgment since he ran on it constantly. I think his judgment is lacking personally.

Comment from Claudia
Time April 2, 2009 at 3:53 pm PDT

Wow, brainded, just…wow. Erotic gratification? I don’t really think I can add to your comment without tarnishing it’s sheer brilliance.

Comment from Brainded
Time April 2, 2009 at 4:10 pm PDT

Claudia

Thank you. Thank you. I know all my friends continue to be astounded at how brilliant I am. Unfortunately I cannot take full credit.

http://www.timothybirdnow.com/?p=1314

http://boudicabpi.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/dr-vakin-on-obama-the-narcissist/

I could go on and on. Books have even already been written about Obama being a narcicist. I happen to agree that it is true.

Wished I could take the credit but I cant.

Comment from Brainded
Time April 2, 2009 at 4:19 pm PDT

Thomas Sowell: ‘Ego and mouth: Obama’s trademark’
Obama’s Towering Narcissism VDH, Katherine Ernst
Obama as Narcissist re American Thinker article
Obama as Narcissist Redux ditto
The Man Who Never Was Tony Blankley
Benighted America Can’t Appreciate Obama John McCormack
Obama as Gatsby Krauthammer

http://www.punditandpundette.com/2009/03/obama-as-narcissist-contd.html

This is the link to the above list of links.

Claudia you seem to be surprised by my Narcissist post so I thought I would give you more food for thought.

Comment from dodato
Time April 3, 2009 at 1:50 pm PDT

At least there’s a chance the new ipod will replace HM’s older one and actually be used, as opposed to nearly all other gifts which are housed in the care of the Government… with some other notable exceptions of course.

During her reign, the Queen has received many unusual gifts including live animals. The more unusual animals have been placed in the care of the London zoo, among them jaguars and sloths from Brazil, and two black beavers from Canada. The Queen has also received gifts of pineapples, eggs, a box of snail shells, a grove of maple trees and 7kg of prawns

Comment from Fraidykatt
Time April 3, 2009 at 3:19 pm PDT

I did some checking and it seems that at least the Obama administration called ahead of time to check with the queen to find out if the Ipod would be a suitable gift without offending her or protocol.

I can give them that. Obama is trying hard to lead an easy, open and laid back presidency. However when you drastically change an institution there is going to be a lot of resistance and when you literally do it over night there is going to be more then animosity.

One more slap in the face of GWB. About 55 percent of the country is eating this up but you know what. Handing out Ipods to the queen or having internet Q&A sessions dont get me excited. Leading the nation and fixing problems in a bipartisan way are what get me excited.

So far Obama has simply created more problems then he has fixed by using his capital to unveil a whole host of far left and mostly partisan programs that he intends to make the focal point of his coming administration.

This after he promised to be centrist, moderate and bipartisan. However in looking back Im not sure what he promised to be anything. He was always the candidate that spoke to us in parables. Its the parable nature of his speeches that led to the “Chosen one” “Messiah” comparisons and its these parables that give him the flexibility to be anything he wants after hes elected and the populace will then claim “I don’t know what your talking about. He was always

Comment from M
Time April 6, 2009 at 7:09 pm PDT

Yes… and yet it’s not like the Queen is the actual person giving the gift. Her participation was to sit for the portrait and to sign away taxpayer’s money to seem generous. Likewise Obama and his staff did the same but personally–as a taxpayer–I don’t want these gifts to occur at all. Why should we pay for this little gift-fest whenever our politicians are out simply doing what they’re paid to do?

Do you fault the president who’s simply making a nice gesture because he didn’t one-up the Queen in her gift-giving? No. Had he given the Queen a 2009 Ford Mustang then everybody would have complained that he was wasting tax dollars.

Seriously people, focus on the issues and not the details. Nobody even mentioned what progress might have been made between these two leaders. This would be like saying that Benjamin Franklin and John Hancock got into a tiff over who had the bigger quill and yet neglect to mention that they’d just signed the Declaration of Independence.

Comment from Ash
Time April 10, 2009 at 5:31 pm PDT

M – Are you really comparing Obama’s presidency up to this point with signing the Declaration of Independence? It takes a huge level of brainwashing to actually believe Obama’s been doing any good thus far.