diplomatic gifts

With Obama's recent trips around the globe, we are reminded yet again of the hilarty that ensues when the richest and most powerful people on earth decide to swap trinkets. Heads of state have been exchanging gifts for centuries. The Pharaohs of ancient Egypt presented engraved stone vases to the Hittites, and in the Middle Ages an emissary of Richard the Lionhart presented a flock of birds (my worst nightmare) to the representative of Saladin. Anyway, these gifts started to get even weirder this March when Hilary Clinton gifted the Russian foreign minister with an over sized button labeled "reset" in Russian, to symbolize new Russian-American relations. A poor and feeble attempt at humor rapidly morphed into international humiliation when it became clear that some state department genius had mistakenly slapped the Russian word for "overcharge" on it instead. This was only the beginning. Obama gave British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a boxed set of Hollywood movies during his recent visit to the White House. American DVDs are apparently incompatible with British players. Obama also gave Queen Lizzy an iPod packed with Broadway tunes. She already had one. Whoever is playing "Santa" for the Obama administration really needs to get their act together.