"Smart diplomacy" ? I'd say questionable...

Bowing to a Saudi king?

Gifting the Queen of England an iPod?

Gifting the Prime Minister a set of 25 classic American movies that won't play in European DVD players?

C'mon Obama -- you're a Harvard-educated lawyer, not Sarah "you can see Russia" Palin -- or George "looked into his soul" Bush.

Why, even the Bush administration could give decent gifts:

President and Mrs. Bush gave Her Majesty a bronze statuette “High Desert Princess” with a personal inscription on the bottom of the base. It is a replica of the original life size statue that is located in front of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Ft. Worth, Texas.

President and Mrs. Bush gave The Prince Philip an exclusive sterling silver eagle box by Tiffany & Co. with personal inscription on the inside lid.

President and Mrs. Bush gave Their Majesties a leather presentation box filled with a collection of documents from the National Archives. One of the items was a copy of an original letter from President Roosevelt to her father, King George, written in 1938. There were also photos from previous royal visits and a DVD of the footage from the Queen’s visit to the United States when she was Princess Elizabeth in 1951.

As for bowing to a Saudi, I'm not sure it's more perturbing...


Personally, I'd rather bow and get it over with.

ThinkProgress offers another flashback:

President Obama — in a departure from President Bush — has made a point during his G20 visit to emphasize that the economic crisis demands a collective global response. Indeed, in a phone call with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last October about the financial collapse, Rudd told Bush that the best response should involve the broader G20, including China — while Bush wanted response to be handled within the G7. Bush, however, reportedly didn’t have a clue what the G20 was:

Informed sources have confirmed the discussion took place on a speaker telephone with a Rudd staffer taking notes.
After the President explained the pressure from Europe for a G7-brokered action on supporting the credit sector and reforming regulation, Rudd immediately insisted the G20 was the solution.

Rudd was then stunned to hear Bush say: “What’s the G20?” 

Um, yeah.  I think we traded up. And not just a little...

I also think this helps explain why Clinton makes a decent Secretary of State. She's surely better at protocol-droidness than the Obamas, though hardly without her own gaffes.