...Courtesy Reuters

Your Gaggler just wrapped up a 17 hour pool day with President Obama, but before we hit the sack (call time is just five hours away!), we felt the need to wrap up all the gossip from the Obama’s first full day in London. First of all, the British press is uniformly dissing Obama’s decision to give the Queen an iPod—mainly because the queen reportedly already has one. They are also trashing Michelle Obama for not being up on her royal protocol. According to video of the Obamas visit to Buckingham Place today, the First Lady briefly touched Queen Elizabeth on the back during a reception there for G-20 leaders, and that is, apparently, a huge social no-no. We just turned on SkyNews, which was airing a panel on the apparent faux pas. “You don’t touch the queen!” one red-face analyst insisted. “You don’t touch her!”

Meanwhile, Obama had a late night. He stayed more than a half hour over schedule at the G-20 working dinner at 10 Downing Street and was one of the last leaders to leave. But we are still more curious about Michelle’s dinner with the G-20 spouses and a slew of well-known British celebs, including supermodel Naomi Campbell (watch out for flying phones!) and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who was seated next to the First Lady. (The spouses got to eat the same Jamie Oliver menu that was served to the G-20 leaders.)

Finally, we are mentioning this only to justify the photo above. Despite the fact it looks like Queen Elizabeth’s Corgis might be rushing to seek political asylum in the presidential limo, the Obamas still don’t have a dog.

Finally an answer to the question we can't stop thinking about: Will the Obamas make up for the DVD debacle in their gift to the Queen? By jove we think they've done it! The Queen received an unconventional but thoughtful gift of an inscribed ipod loaded with footage of her State visit to America in 2007, along with a rare songbook autographed by composer Richard Rodgers. Phew! Nice work. Contemporary, American and personal. Check, check, check. (Although some snarky member of the British establishment will undoubtedly find fault.)  In return, the Obama's received a framed photograph of the Queen and her husband, which is apparently her standard gift to heads of state.

The Obamas just arrived at No. 10 Downing Street where Prime Minister Brown is hosting a working dinner. Michelle (who will be dining separately with her counterparts) once again made women across the globe stare mournfully at their bingo wings by sporting a sleeveless, black and white cocktail dress by Isabel Toledo, her elegantly sculpted triceps on full display. Tonight's meal will be prepared by British TV chef Jamie Oliver, aka the Naked Chef. According to his website, the menu is: (after the jump)

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Your Gaggler cannot complain. Covering the White House is a pretty cool gig. It’s a front row seat to history. And you get to jet around the world on Air Force One. But there are decidedly unglamorous aspects to the job, especially on foreign trips. First, there’s the lack of sleep—Obama’s trip this week is all about early mornings and late nights which has made your Gaggler something of a walking zombie barely two days in. (Call time this morning: Midnight EST.) And then there’s the real killer: The old “hurry up and wait,” where you rush and rush only to sit around for hours. Today, your Gaggler is the magazine pool reporter, which means she’s been spending some quality time at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence here in London, drinking lots of Diet Coke, while President Obama meets upstairs with foreign leaders. The press pool is holding in the basement, right next to what appears to be fancy lamp storage and boxes and boxes of Shout stain remover. (The ambassador really really hates stains, folks.) Your Gaggler also took notice that the hold area also happens to be next to the ambassador’s official booze closet, but when she enthusiastically noted this fact to her other poolers (“Look, there’s champagne!”), an embassy official quickly ran and locked the door. Some people are just no fun.

Barack Obama will visit Moscow in July. That’s one of the headlines out of the president’s second big meeting of the day, his sit-down with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The pair jointly announced that the U.S. and Russia will begin working on a new arms control treaty that would cut their weapons stockpiles and prevent the spread of nuclear arms to Iran and North Korea. White House officials hope to have the new pact in place by July, in time to replace the current arms pact which expires in December. Speaking to reporters afterwards, Obama described decision to enter talks as “great progress” in efforts to improve what both he and Medvedev have repeatedly called the “drift” of the U.S./Russian relationship. Still, senior administration officials were careful to note that negotiations will be difficult and there is no guarantee of success. “We are going into this with our eyes wide open,” one official said.

Obama officials were quick to distance their efforts to make nice with Russia with those of George W. Bush, who famously cozied up to former Russian President Vladimir Putin at their first meeting. “I was able to get a sense of his soul,” Bush said. Obama aides, meanwhile, said their boss wasn’t trying to be “buddy buddy” with Medvedev, although they did acknowledge the two men had a personal rapport. Among other things, Medvedev and Obama bonded over the fact they are both lawyers and “speak the same legal language,” an Obama official said. But the aide repeatedly insisted that Obama wasn’t a pushover, and that “their rapport was matched by candor and frankness” on areas where the two sides still disagree, like missile defense.

Political pundits live for elections, so it's no surprise they've been chattering for weeks about what yesterday's election in New York's 20th district might mean. We love elections too, but this race has been bestowed with a level of national significance that overstates its political, strategic and financial consequence. Will it be a measure of Obama's coattails? Is it a referendum on Obama's stimulus package? Will it plant the first seed of a GOP comeback in 2010? Or will it be a nail in the coffin of besieged RNC Chair Michael Steele, who prominently campaigned for the Republican candidate? The result answers none of these questions: The race is too close to call. Hmph. Anticlimactic. All precincts have reported, and Democrat Scott Murphy, 39, is leading his opponent Jim Tedisco, 58, by around 60 votes. The result will hinge on around 4,000 postal ballots, but those from overseas military are not due in until April 13. A White House source told MSNBC that their models predict Murphy will win the majority of these absentee ballots.

So what does this all mean? The district was traditionally Republican, until now-Senator Gillibrand won it in 2006, so it was never a shoe in for Murphy. At best it means that neither Obama nor Steele is an albatross, and that perhaps the jury is still out on the stimulus. But a special election barely three months into a new Administration, while the news has overflowed with stories of uncertainty, is hardly a reliable bellweather for Congressional elections 19 months away. Especially when the result is basically a tie.

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Good morning from London, where Barack Obama is spending his first full day in the U.K. hanging out in meetings, meetings, and more meetings. While you were still in bed, Obama was at 10 Downing Street, where he met with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The two went before reporters, where, among other things, Obama declared reports of tension among the countries participating in this week’s G20 summit as “vastly overstated.” This comes after word yesterday that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has threatened to walk out of meetings tomorrow if his demands for stricter international financial regulations aren’t met. Both Brown and Obama downplayed that report, suggesting it was the media who was instigating all the drama. “I know when you have a bunch of heads of state meeting, it’s not visually that interesting (and there’s) great desire to inject some conflict and some drama into the occasion,” Obama said. Uh huh.

The presser was initially scheduled to be six questions long—three from the British press corps, three from the Americans—but just as Obama was wrapping up his final answer and preparing to bid adieu, Brown suddenly solicited a fourth question, much to the surprise of the president. It turned out to be a good one, well, several: In a three-part question, the reporter asked Obama if he had a “good luck message” for the England’s soccer team who is set to play the Ukraine later today in a World Cup qualifying match. “I have had enough trouble back home picking my brackets for the college basketball tournament,” Obama said. “Stirred up all kinds of controversy. (So) the last thing I am going to do is wade into European football. That would be a mistake. I didn’t get a briefing on that, but I sense it would be a mistake.” Asked what he loved most about Great Britain, Obama first said “its people” but then cited Queen Elizabeth, who will meet with the president and First Lady later this afternoon. “As you might imagine, Michelle has really been thinking that through,” Obama said. Finally, the reporter asked if Obama had any political advice for Gordon Brown "as, president, you won in a landslide." Obama delivered some safe answer about how "good policy means good politics." But Brown, grinning, chipped in with a likely more honest answer: They talked exercise routines. "I've benefited from Barack's advice, not just about elections, but about fitness," Brown said. "We've been talking about not the treadmill of politics, but the treadmill that we're both on everyday, the running machine...We've been exchanging ideas."

Lot's of fun webpranks this morning, like Gmail's autopilot mode, but so far NPR's Car Talk program has my favorite joke. Click and Clack have created a CNN news story announcing that they'll be taking the helm at General Motors, and, among other things, will be ending the trade embargo with Cuba. From their story:

In order for any of this to work, however, the Magliozzi brothers have to make good on their plan to break the longstanding US economic embargo of the Caribbean island nation. Trade is not currently permitted. "Not a problem," says Ray. "My brother is often mistaken for Fidel Castro. He's going to go and sit down with President Obama, introduce himself as Fidel, and work the whole thing out."

Tom interrupts, "Right. I'm just going to say, 'Listen, this whole communist thing... dumb idea. Sorry about that. How'd you guys like a nice Hyatt on the Malecon?'"

"And then Tom's going to go to Cuba," says Ray, "and show Fidel a brochure for an '09 Cadillac CTS. Dark Red. Premium Package. Air-Conditioned Seats. Trust me. We can make this work."

"We have a lot in common with Fidel," says Tom, "cigars....baseball...." "...and they both like to store food in their beards," adds Ray. "We may have to pull a few tail fins out of the design closet," says Tom, "but Cuba is going to lead GM back to the top."

Thanks guys! Another why my radio is always tuned to NPR.