Obviously clothing gifts go with the folks when they leave but are things like hand-carved pen holders from historical ship-wood the property of Barack Obama or the property of the White House? Just curious.
Or like a guy with a complicated identity doing some serious and honest self-examination of the kinds of irrational emotions that every single person on this earth at some point has.
Don’t you think any beef with England might have less to do with the fact that he is black, and more to do with the fact that England was a staunch supporter of Bush and his war- two things that Obama is firmly against? For the last eight years, American and England have had a super-special-best-friends relationship. Maybe Obama just isn’t feeling it and doesn’t see a reason to play England in a special place above the countless other nations that America has close and important ties to.
Or maybe he thought it was a nice gift. I mean, I wish someone would buy something like that for me! It’s the kind of personal, practical thing that a real person would actually enjoy receiving. It’s not really a good time for extravagant gift exchanges, and Obama knows that Brown doesn’t need anymore ceremonial dreck. So he probably thought this was a good gift on a person-to-person basis, and he didn’t count on being so completely upstaged by Brown’s very thoughtful gift.
What was Churchill doing in the few years after the war before he became Prime Minister? I don’t think it’s personal either, I’m just curious.
Jophiel, according to one of the articles I posted (about Brown not keeping the bomber jacket), British Prime Ministers can keep any gift that’s given to them, if they pay for it. I don’t know how that works in the US though. No matter what though, I would guess that the pen holder would stay in the Oval Office even if President Obama could keep it. If the next president didn’t want it, it would go to the…National Archives? Smithsonian? I don’t know.
Btw, I don’t have a cite for this, it was on another message board and the link he gave didn’t work, but these are allegedly the films presented to Prime Minister Brown:
Nitpick: Tony Blair, like Margaret Thatcher in 1991, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, not the Congressional Medal of Honor, which is awarded only to members of the U.S. military.
Incidentally, Cameron gave Obama some CDs when they met last summer, so maybe the DVDs for Brown weren’t too cheapass after all: Obama's view of Cameron: a lightweight, claims magazine | Barack Obama | The Guardian
i believe the prince of wales went to what he called " a horrid school" in scotland that his dad thought would “toughen” him up. william and harry went to eton, where mum’s family have gone for generations.
the pen thing is rather nifty, and as i said above a nice pairing with the resolute desk. the resolute desk was in the smithsonian for a bit, so the pen could go there as well, if ness.
Nah, they’d probably just loch it up.
As best I can tell, this isn’t a box set that you can buy, so this was either something put together by the folks at AFI at the request of the White House, or 25 DVDs, which is going to run close to $500 retail value. Not a cheap gift at all. Not in this economy.
Thanks for the correction. 
Actually this emphasises how ghastly it is here to be associated with Bush in any way. There has been no serious publicity about Blair receiving the highest civilian honour the US can bestow (which is why I couldn’t remember what it was), nor about how long he waited before reluctantly actually picking it up.
2003
Tony Blair is due to become the first Briton since Winston Churchill to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal after senators paid tribute to his “steadfast stand against evil” and support for America.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1425866/Congressional-Medal-for-Blair.html
2006
Tony Blair seldom enjoys complimentary headlines when it comes to bestowing or receiving honours. It is three years this month since the US Congress awarded him its highest civilian honour: the congressional gold medal. To date, it still hasn’t been collected.
…
Picking up a medal in Washington while British soldiers continue to die in Iraq is unlikely to go down well.
2009
It was always assumed that Mr Blair declined to accept the award during his period as prime minister for fear of giving weight to prejudices that he was a “poodle” of the United States during the Iraq war.
Maybe a pen made from a dismantled nuke is thoughtful enough with enough history to be acceptable. You just can’t buy for some people you know?
glee, yes, I see Blair also got a Congressional Gold Medal. Don’t know that it would carry, in British eyes, the same Bush stigma as the Presidential Medal of Freedom, though: Congressional Gold Medal - Wikipedia
He’s in very good company, as you’ll see. Blair’s award was dated July 10, 2003, about four-fifths of the way down this page: List of Congressional Gold Medal recipients - Wikipedia
About 1/3 right! Public schools generally don’t care about the “quality of your stock” (whatever that means), they definitely care about whether you can pay the fees, and they do care about how smart you are. These days most of them sell themselves on their ability to get multiple straight 'A’s at A Level and hence into one of the top universities and they don’t want their 99% success rate upset by some posh but dim kid.
Re Boris, he may be a buffoon but he’s bright enough. Read some of his serious stuff, books or articles while editor of the Spectator. You may not agree with him but he’s not a lightweight.
On what basis do you say “Prince Charles who is well known to be intellectually sub-par.” Emotionally repressed, awkward, very aware of his place as heir to the throne, but I see no evidence he’s thick. Probably no genius but definitely above average intelligence. Intellectually sub-par people don’t learn to fly F4 Phantoms, Captain minesweepers or take strong position on modern architecture and organic farming. God knows there’s a lot to criticise about Charlie but he’s not stupid. (ps he didn’t go to Eton, he went to Gordonstoun which, as noted, he hated.)
So you contend there are no stupid people from extremely wealthy and established families going to independent/public schools? So where do they go then? The state system? And whilst I agree the results of students coming through the schools are one of the biggest draws (it being the bottom line of education) so are the networks that form in independent schools too. Rich, stupid people even in this day and age end up in positions of power, and having gone to school with one of them is extremely useful for a person’s prospects. For aspirational parents, this is also a draw.
If it looks like an idiot, sounds like an idiot, and tastes like an idiot, then it’s likely an idiot.
There’s too much here to address without further hijacking this thread, but if he’s not thick then how did some of the finest education in the world (no doubt backed up with countless tutors) still not be enough to get him anything more than a CSE in metalwork?