- An ornamental pen holder constructed from timber from the HMS Gannet, a Victorian anti-slavery boat and a sister ship to the HMS Resolute. (Timber from the HMS Resolute was used to craft multiple "resolute desks", with one of those desks currently sitting in the Oval Office of the White House.)
- A framed commission for the HMS Resolute.
- A first edition of the seven-volume biography of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.
- Brown and his wife Sarah also presented President Obama's two daughters with an outfit and matching necklaces, as well as six children's books by British authors.
Now I am the first individual to wholeheartedly agree that Brown's gifts are pitifully much more thoughtful than the ones from President Obama. With that being said, there are definitely a few aspects of this story that I should point out:
1. I think that the right wing is so bent out of shape about this situation is because they are not used to gifts being exchanged legally between two members of government.
2. President Obama is also being criticized for returning a bronze bust of Churchill to Brown during his visit; this bust worth hundreds of thousands of pounds was loaned to the White House by the British government following the September 11th attacks. Let me say that again: The bust was loaned to the U.S. In fact, a British Embassy spokesperson remarked that the bust "was lent for the first term of office of President Bush. When the President was elected for his second and final term, the loan was extended until January 2009." NOTE: It is important to emphasize that President Obama may not be the greatest fan of Churchill considering his father was originally from Kenya. The former Prime Minister led the suppression of the 1950s Mau Mau Rebellion against the British colonialist rule, which left thousands of Kenyans dead.
3. The special DVD collector's set, which includes "Casablanca", "Citizen Kane", "The Godfather", "Lawrence of Arabia", "Psycho" and "Raging Bull", was produced by the American Film Institute as a special request for the White House last month.
4. Many conservatives are making a false claim about the DVDs themselves, declaring that the movies will not properly play in European DVD players. Certain DVDs are modified to play anywhere in the world and, since the American Film Institute fulfilled this special request from the White House, I would imagine that the same goes for the ones presented to Brown.
5. While conservatives are bashing President Obama for his gifts to Brown, it is obvious that they have completely forgotten about the fact that Mr. Bush presented Brown with a classy fur trimmed, brown leather aviator jacket during his first trip to the U.S. in the summer of 2007. (This was also the same gift that Brown's predecessor, Tony Blair, received from Mr. Bush six years earlier). Aside from the fact that the jacket was completely contradictory to Brown's usual attire of a business suit and tie, numerous political commentators (both within the U.S. and United Kingdom) criticized the gift because Brown was attempting to break with his predecessor Tony Blair and distance himself between him and Mr. Bush due to the Iraq War. By the way, that fantastic aviator jacket was above a specific monetary limit so Brown was required to purchase the gift from the British government but he declined to do so.
6. Guess what? President Obama didn't give the gifts to you so get over it! This is not the same as every year on your birthday when your grandmother gives an awful present to you and you then have to return it to the store in order to get something worthwhile.
The truth is that, while they are currently wrestling with the economic crisis, President Obama and his administration are not going to fully embrace a foreign government which conspired with Mr. Bush to promote the false premise that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, Obama probably just treated Brown like the lame duck Prime Minister that he is.
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