Secretary Clinton leaves the country and suddenly the Obama administration’s foreign policy team starts to come apart at the seams. First it was the press conference fiasco with Gordon Brown, now we find out that team Obama shopped for gifts for the Brown family at the Walgreens down Pennsylvania Ave:

Gordon Brown has been given a collection of 25 classic American films on DVD as his official gift from Barack Obama.

The Prime Minister flew home from his successful trip to Washington this morning with the ’special collector’s box’ of films hidden in his luggage.

No 10 had tried to keep the present a secret, refusing to answer reporters who asked what President Obama had given to mark the reaffirmation of the special relationship.

The President of the United States gave the Prime Minister of Great Britain a DVD boxed set. By comparison, here’s what the Prime Minister brought President Obama:

Mr Brown’s gifts included an ornamental desk pen holder made from the oak timbers of Victorian anti-slaver HMS Gannet, once named HMS President.

Mr Obama was so delighted he has already put it in pride of place in the Oval Office on the Resolute desk which was carved from timbers of Gannet’s sister ship, HMS Resolute.

Another treasure given to the U.S. President was the framed commission for HMS Resolute, a vessel that came to symbolise Anglo-US peace when it was saved from ice packs by Americans and given to Queen Victoria.

Finally, Mr Brown gave a first edition set of the seven-volume classic biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.

That’s quite a stark contrast. But would it really matter what the Prime Minister gave him? How do you give a world leader a DVD set?

It reminds me of when I worked in Huntsville and someone would stop by the radio station but we wouldn’t have anything to give them so we would just randomly grab some leftovers from the prize closet.

h/t to Ed at HotAir