Is it amateur hour at the Obama White House?

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Examiner Editorial: Is it amateur hour at the Obama White House?

Examiner Staff Writer 3/10/09

It was embarrassing enough that President Barack Obama insulted British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week by handing him 25 movie videos as the chief executive’s diplomatic gift to the visiting representative of America’s most important ally. Compared to Brown’s gifts, which included a pen holder made of wood from a British warship that helped stamp out the slave trade, Obama’s gift, in the words of The Telegraph, looked like the kind of thing the White House might hand out to the visiting head of a minor African state. Even worse is the context in which this huge diplomatic gaffe took place — a six-week succession of miscues, oversights, miscalculations and outright errors that suggest things have gone seriously awry in the White House.