Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader reads on Joan’s site that the bust of Winston Churchill loaned to the United States by the UK and displayed in the Oval Office under President Bush has been returned to the British by President Obama. (BTW, your Maximum Leader also voted in Joan’s poll.)

This makes your Maximum Leader sad, but what really do we expect. Our new president is making a break with the past. That includes office furnishings. According to the various linked pieces, Churchill has been replaced with Abraham Lincoln. Your Maximum Leader has no problem with replacing Churchill for Lincoln in the Oval Office. But it seems as though this whole exchange has been handled badly. It also seems from the tone and tenor of the articles that the diplomatic community is all atwitter at what the return of the bust might actually “mean.”

Your Maximum Leader, for his part, thinks that this whole (very minor) incident means nothing more than Obama’s people don’t know how to do things in a way that don’t upset our allies and friends.

Carry on.