I'm Glad George Bush is Gone, No More Stupid Diplomatic Mistakes...Right?

So it's traditional for the new president and the British prime minister to exchange gifts, commemorating our countries' intertwined histories. This year, Gordon Brown brought Barack Obama a pen-holder carved from the hull of the Resolute, an anti-slaver ship, and a first-edition 7-volume Winston Churchill biography--both priceless. What does our illustrious President Messiah give back? A box containing 25 classic DVDs--selections such as Raging Bull, Casablanca, Psycho, and ET, classics all but hardly priceless. To compound this error, the DVDs are not of the type printed in Britain--not only are they crappy Walmart gifts, but they're crappy Walmart gifts that the British can't even use.

Then he gave the British another gift, this one actually priceless--and even less appropriate. After 9/11, they gave us a bust of Winston Churchill to show we would stand side-by-side. Obama gave it back. Mr. Brown insisted that he wanted the bust to remain in the White House, but Obama persisted until the prime minister took it.

He also denied Mr. Brown a state dinner and cancelled a joint press conference.

Needless to say, the British are not too happy about this. They feel insulted, as they should.

A State Department official (who is unnamed in the British reports) took this from bad to worse by saying that the president wanted to send a message that the British are no more special than any of the other 160 countries we deal with.

I thought, now that George Bush was gone and Sarah Palin isn't anywhere near the White House, we wouldn't have any embarassing mistakes like this?