Obama's White House Staff Has a Lot to Learn
It seems the Obama administration staff has a lot to learn.
As Jonathan Turley explains: "First, there was the embarrassing and insulting treatment of the Brown family by the White House during the recent state visit. Now, the White House has put out a briefing booklet that appears to go out of its way to insult the British from referring to them as a declining world power to elevating France over Britain as an ally to noting its small size. It seems that the White House has been taken over by anglophobes.
"In the official press kit, the White House refers to England as “slightly smaller than Oregon.” Nice. Of course, in population, England has 60 million people as opposed to 3.7 million Oregon residents. If size really matters, Oregon wins. Great Britain occupies an area of 80,823 square miles while Oregon covers an area of 98,466 sq mi..
"I guess that that is still better that Germany which is described as a reliable US ally” since 9/11 and “about the size of Montana.”
"Once again, there seems to be a serious shortage of sophistication — and frankly class — in the White House staff in handling such things. With a whopping 500 people in tow, this briefing book inevitably was going to get out.By the way, are there really people on the Obama staff that do not know about England and France and Germany. If there are such people, shouldn’t they stay home to finish a distance learning course before setting off on a diplomatic mission? "
Maybe that explains this from McClatchy:
" 'I am very pleased to be in London, especially with weather of the sort we're seeing today,' Obama said during a news conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as rare sunlight shone through the windows.
" 'Both of us greatly value the special relationship between our nations. The United States and the United Kingdom have stood together through thick and thin, through war and peace, through hard times and prosperity, and we've always emerged stronger by standing together.'
" 'So I'm pleased that my first meeting overseas as president is with Gordon Brown, just as I was pleased to host him in Washington shortly after taking office. And I know that we both believe that the relationship between our two countries is more than just an alliance of interests; it's a kinship of ideals and it must be constantly renewed.'
"Maybe that calmed troubled waters here.
"Obama set off a brouhaha in the British press when he was seen as dissing Brown during the prime minister's visit to Washington last month.
"Exchanging gifts as a diplomatic tradition, Brown gave Obama an ornate penholder made from the timber of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet. The Gannet was the sister ship of the HMS Resolute, the one whose wood was used to make the president's desk in the White House, given by Queen Victoria as a gift.
"In return, Obama gave Brown a gift set of 25 U.S. movies on DVD.
" 'About as exciting as a pair of socks,' the London Daily Mail cracked.
:Even worse, the DVDs didn't work on British players."
As Jonathan Turley commented on his blog: "What did we give the Browns? A box of 25 DVDs of movies like ET that you could pick up for less than $200 in England. It left the impression for some British citizens that we thought that they did not actually have things like DVDs or somehow missed the release of The Wizard of Oz. For the Brown boys, Fraser and John, the Obama’s gave them cheap replicas of Marine One which appeared to have been grabbed in the White House gift shop shortly before the event."
Perhaps the Obama administration team needs a lesson in tact or should have more experienced, creative personnel.. Freshness is wonderful but must be used with knowledge and experience, and in the case of other countries' representatives' with an importance of history in mind.
Comments