Barrel Strength

After Obama was elected, one heard ad nauseum about how he was much more intelligent than Bush and how he was going to change the US image abroad.  His first test was the visit by Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister.  After snubbing Brown, the two exchanged gifts, with the gifts from Brown being much more thoughtful and historically important.  They included an ornamental desk pen holder made from the oak timbers of Victorian anti-slaver HMS Gannet, a the framed commission for HMS Resolute, a vessel that came to symbolise Anglo-US peace when it was saved from ice packs by Americans and given to Queen Victoria, and a first edition set of the seven-volume classic biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.

In return Obama gave Brown a 25-DVD box set of classic American films.  Other than being cheap and probably encoded only for the US market, the gift was entirely inappropriate for reasons explained by this report.

The Prime Minister’s close friends have revealed that he can only see extremely large print and has needed guidance at public events. There were suggestions that if Mr Brown falls or bumps into something his damaged retina could fail and he would go blind completely…

Damian McBride, Mr Brown’s chief spin doctor until the reshuffle, is quoted as telling the interviewer: ‘His sight isn’t very good.’

Insiders also revealed that Mr Brown’s memos are in huge print and triple spaced while his own handwriting is getting larger. One senior official said: “If I want him to reply to an email, I always make sure it’s in at least 36 point.” That is five times as large as standard print size.

Very classy Obama!

Update:  Time to “press the reset button” on U.S.-Russia relations.  More gag gifts!

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed a palm-sized box wrapped with a bow.  Lavrov opened it and pulled out the gift: a red button on a black base with a Russian word peregruzka printed on top.

“We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?” Clinton asked.

“You got it wrong,” Lavrov said.

Instead of “reset,” Lavrov said the word on the box meant “overcharge.”

First Lady Michelle Obama serves up lunch at a homeless shelter… as the homeless recipient captures the moment with his cellphone camera.

H/T The Corner @ NRO