WASHINGTON (Map, News) - President George W. Bush lauded Queen Elizabeth II and her country as allies in the fight against terrorism, but also committed a verbal gaffe that implied that the monarch was much older than her 81 years during a ceremony on the White House's south lawn. After pointing out Queen Elizabeth II had dined with 10 U.S. presidents, Bush said she helped America celebrate its 200th birthday in "177 ... 1976," which drew laughter from the crowd of 7,000 invited guests.
The queen apparently was not among those who were amused.
"She shot me a look only a mother could give a child," Bush said, after glancing at the monarch.
The arrival ceremony, one of the few formal events Bush has held for a foreign dignitary, featured a 21-gun salute and a performance by a fife and drum corps complete with the style of powdered wigs and lobster-red coats that British soldiers wore in the Revolution.
"Today our two nations are defending liberty against tyranny and terror," Bush told the crowd. "We're resisting those who murder the innocent to advance a hateful ideology, whether they kill in New York or London or Kabul or Baghdad."
The queen, wearing pearls and a white hat with an overlay of black lace that matched the trim on her white button-down blazer, arrived at the White House with Prince Philip in a motorcade after spending Sunday night at the nearby Blair House. President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush, who was wearing a pale gray suit with matching shoes, greeted the royal couple shortly before 11 a.m.
Just as she has in all her public appearances since arriving in the United States last week, the queen paid tribute to this year's 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent British settlement in North American.
"My two days in Virginia gave me a new insight into those events which helped to shape this country's development and to lay the foundations of this great nation based on shared principles of equality, democracy and the rule of the law," said the queen, who will tour a NASA facility in Greenbelt and the National Children's Medical Research Center in D.C. on Tuesday. Reminders of the history between the two countries, especially the Revolutionary War that severed the colonies from British control, were plainly visible from the White House's South Lawn
As the queen and President Bush delivered their speeches, the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial stood out beyond the crowd, against a bright blue sky.
Visiting the White House and honoring Jamestown, the queen said, offers an opportunity to "celebrate the close and enduring associations which thrive between the United States and the United Kingdom at every level: be it government or corporate, institutional or personal."
Poster Comment:
"...featured a 21-gun salute and a performance by a fife and drum corps complete with the style of powdered wigs and lobster-red coats that British soldiers wore in the Revolution."
You'd think that a Washington, DC-based online media source would know that His Excellency Gen. George Washington authorized the Continental Army band to wear red coats so they could be seen and distinguished on the battlefield.
They were the only Americans who were authorized to wear red.
They weren't re-enacting a British fife & drum corps, but an American one.
*Good grief*