No Pomp & Circumstance by Dr. T

President Obama vowed that he would bring the U.S. back into good standing with the world. Well, he certainly hasn't started on a good note. Our strongest ally is Great Britain and recently Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a visit to Washington. Alas there was no pomp and circumstance, no state dinner, just a photo op in the Oval Office. Could it be that Obama and his advisors are not up to speed on protocol? Or is it perhaps that they just don't give a darn? But the biggest "dis" was yet to come when as is tradition, gifts were exchanged.

Mr. Brown gave the President a first edition biography of Winston Churchill, written by Sir Martin Gilbert. The prime minister would have scored better had the tome been Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto" or Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals". You see, President Obama is no fan of Churchill. In fact, upon seeing a bust of Churchill in the Oval Office ( a gift to President Bush) he shamefully sent it back to the British Embassy! To add insult to injury, President Obama presented Mr. Brown with a stack of Hollywood DVDs which in all liklihood were not formatted to British DVD players. Oh, and the Prime Minister is nearly blind in one eye..so much for intense movie viewing. Rude and embarrassing behavior...clearly not the caliber that would return our "good standing" in the world.