Tone Deaf

The Left consistently derided President Bush as incompetent and a cowboy.

President Obama's recent foreign policy exploits are nothing short of embarrassing and tone deaf. First, he gave Prime Minister Gordon Brown a DVD collection that anyone could have picked off of Amazon.com (and which turned out to be for the wrong zone) after Brown gave President Obama a truly memorable and historic keepsake. The Prime Minister gave the President an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet and a couple toys from the White House gift shop.

Now, President Obama has graced Queen Elizabeth II with an iPod. The Queen already has one.

Who the heck does Obama think he is? These aren't gifts fit for our closest ally and historic friend.

Throw in the repeated gaffes by Secretary of State Clinton, including the "reset/overcharge button" to Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov, and we've got ourselves a trend.

The White House has an Office of Protocol, whose job description includes the following:

Under the direction of the Acting Chief of Protocol Gladys Boluda the office is responsible for activities including the planning, hosting, and officiating of ceremonial events for visiting chiefs of state and heads of government, as well as coordinating logistics for the visits; managing Blair House, the President's guesthouse; and overseeing all protocol matters for Presidential or Vice Presidential travel abroad, working alongside the White House.

Apparently, providing embarrassing gifts is now part of the job description.

Once is a mistake. Twice is a coincidence. This is a sickening trend of incompetence.

UPDATE:
Allahpundit is also on the same wavelength regarding the incompetence of the Protocol Office. He wonders when Obama will decide to cut and run from the current batch of employees. Michelle Malkin also weighs in.

UPDATE:
New reports indicate that the White House also provided a rare songbook signed by Richard Rodgers. That makes the iPod only marginally better as a gift. You can bet that the Queen accepted the gift with grace because to reject the gift would be harmful to US-British relations.