Ground Zero etiquette: A tale of two roses
It’s a small gesture, but gestures matter at the hallowed grave site of so many murdered innocent Americans.
Barack Obama flings a memorial rose at Ground Zero like he’s a kid tossing pennies into a fountain at the shopping mall — or a spectator tossing flowers at a bullfight.
He doesn’t know what he’s doing.
(Clueless NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg copies him.)
By contrast, John McCain and his wife kneel and gently, somberly, place their roses down at the foot of the 9/11 tribute.
Tons of you e-mailed me about this. Here’s the vid for the rest of you who didn’t see it. It’s a telling cultural and generational distinction between these two men vying to be commander-in-chief of our nation:
Here’s another angle (you can see Bloomberg’s toss in this one):
***
Reader Joe W. also notices: “The first 30 seconds showed that Obama could not take the time to shake hands with the uniformed firemen (John McCain took the time) nor the construction worker with the American flag hardhat…He was painfully uncomfortable at this ceremony!”
***
Some readers are complaining about Joe W.’s comments, interpreting it to mean that Obama didn’t shake any firefighters’ hands. I think he simply meant the ones standing that line. Obama shook plenty of hands during the rest of the ceremony.
Commenter Mookie: “The video showing that he spent time with the uniformed fireman and the construction worker has been posted numerous times. That’s what people are objecting to, not the notion that he didn’t shake any hands at all.”
Noted.
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Categories: 9/11,Barack Obama,John McCain
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I would have been surprised had this story been any different.
Experience, judgement, propriety.
Like his plans for our military future in their battle for Iraqi freedom, he wants to get out of there as soon as possible, with no honor.
Very comforting… but for whom?
Obama looks SO uncomfortable, as he sort of pats that girl on the shoulder. He’s impersonal and distant, and can’t find his way over to greet the others that McCain greets/consoles.
What a disaster.
What a maroon! What an ignoramus! I’m still dumbfounded that the vast majority of Americans do not see this guy for what he is… a poseur.
Come on, Obama was just trying to hit a 3 pointer.
Snarky little pr*ck.
Classiness versus lack of class.
Obama nonchalantly tosses a rose in the water–ambivalent to the 9-11, his wife dances with Ellen but has not time for memorials for the innocent people killed, and they are empathetic to terrorists and blame America.
McCain is with his wife, they place roses on the water, show respect in this memorial, admire our country, put America first, and want to kill the terrorists.
Tell me, who is more PRESIDENTIAL?
And think about which of them had the more difficult time actually bending over and gently placing a rose – the young, agile candidate, or the older, partially handicapped candidate? The attitude of disrespect versus honor is blatantly obvious.
You noticed that too, eh?
Obama’s a complete phony. No class, no grace, no dignity. No substance. And the Leftards have been calling Pres. Bush a yokel for 8 years. Talk about projection.
The toss isnt what did it for me.
It was what happened in that second video when I saw that footage earlier.
Rude….John and Cindy McCain greet each of the people, so does Mayor Bloomberg. Obama talks to the first woman, then walks away behind Bloomberg essentially ignoring the rest of the people standing there. That shows how pompous an idiot he is….then to follow it with a toss…and NO Michelle in attendance.
That is three strikes.
Obama was just there trying to pretend he is just as presidential as McCain by standing beside him.
The idea that this hollow man could be POTUS is absurd.
Nice catch, your readers are the best on the net Michelle, a fine point that speaks volumes of one’s character (or lack there of).
He was doing them a favor by simply being in their presence. Wait, two favors, he didn’t take his wife.
There you see in bold relief the difference between a man raised to know what honor, dignity and solemnity look like and a man raised to believe it’s all about him.
John McCain has a natural, ingrained sense of decorum, no doubt largely due to his military training at Annapolis and his strong faith. Barak has the decorum I would expect from one brought up the way he was. He is a walking advertisement for the notion that only a mature, initiated man can teach a boy how to be a man.
I would recommend that Barak read a book called “Iron John” by Robert Bly. That book has had a great influence on me since my mentor gave me a copy back in my twenties. He was a real mentor, one whose views I was well aware of, not the Rev. Wright type.
http://www.americanarmed.blogspot.com
Even the way he carries the rose. In that second video, he’s swinging it at his side like it’s some cheap trinket from a cheesy souvenir shop.
McCain holds it gently, knowing it symbolizes something much more than a toss away flower.
He does look really uncomfortable there, doesn’t he?
dj said:
OUCH!
Maybe Barack was afraid that his wife might start quoting some of Jeremiah Wright’s words about 9/11?
Michelle Obama: “So this is the spot where America’s chickens came home to roost!”
The Messiah Complex can’t even bring himself to shake hands with the firemen and construction worker?!
This guy is a disgrace to represent a part of the USA. But he does symbolize the democrat liberal party very well.
That clip should be shown to every American. Actions are much more powerful than words.
I knew you had no brains. Now we know you have no class. Criticizing the way Obama recognizes the dead, as a screen for the fact that your candidate is intellectually, morally and politically bankrupt.
Your so-called respect for the dead is just a cheap pose, you’re using them as props as surely as Sarah Palin uses her children. You love 9/11 — it gives you an excuse to hate Muslims, abuse the Constitution and to trash Obama. If you actually thought it was a tragedy, you might have been able to put the petty trash aside for a day.
The fact that you couldn’t tells all.
Telling.
That’s all that needs to be said.
BemusedLib -
America weeps for you.
It’s called decorum. Something neither you nor your candidate would understand.
Michelle, he didn’t ignore the fireman and the construction worker. He walked past them because Bloomberg, McCain and Cindy began walking towards the ramp. If you watch this video starting at around 2:45, you’ll see that he spent time with each person in that line, including the fireman and the construction worker.
A reporter asked McCain to define honor a while back.
Here is the answer in the flesh. One shows class and empathy the other just an arrogant this is so much below my being here elite. Don’t believe there is any need to explain which one is which.
I saw this on the news and it stuck me right away also. BO is a unpatriotic dolt.
Yep I said it and stand by it!
The World was watching. Perhaps Little Bammie didn’t want all his buddies to see him act like an “ugly” American. They may think he didn’t agree with his mentor, Mr. Wright.
Funny — I thought decorum might involve not taking a sad, solemn and important moment and cashing it in for cheap political gain.
You know what? I take that back. He talks to each of them BEFORE they go down the ramp. He didn’t ignore them in the least!
Bemusedlib-
Somalia, the USS Cole, Kobar towers, Achille Lauro, Munich Olympics, 1994 WTC attack, Daniel Pearl, Nick Berg.
I need no excuse at all.
http://www.americanarmed.blogspot.com
HISSY FIT! Kicking and screaming befitting a spoiled 2 year old.
Try holding your breath next time.
How have you not been petty today, bemusedlib? Have you thanked a military member, a police man, or a fireman? What have you done to remember?
I think you’re projecting in this statement. No one “loves” 9/11 and that is the most hateful statement I’ve ever heard, among many. What are you doing here except to cause problems?
I lost two college friends 7 years ago. What did you lose? What did you sacrifice?
You haven’t put the “petty trash” aside either. Pot, meet kettle. You disgust me.
Categorically untrue. Watch the entire video here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV-gENJOs8s
The guy who posted it seems like a nutjob but it’s the only video I could find of the ceremony in its entirety.
He doesn’t care what he is doing. Obama doesn’t care about anything but himself and his quest for power. He is a little child who demands the praise and respect of the entire World, but he has no respenct himself for anyone else.
Barack Obama will not win this presidential campaign, barring massive voter fraud. The longer people see and find out WHO this pathetic little child is, the more they will turn away from him and either stay home, vote for Nader or some other third party hack, or they’ll vote for McCain.
If Hillary Clinton is smart, she and Bill will withdraw their support for BO, and tell their supporters to sit out the election until 2012. They cannot gain anything buy holding the party line with this dispicable, horrible candidate. Smart, sane elements of the DNC need to jump ship asap, because Obama is a disaster.
bloodhound
bemusedlib doesn’t use the dictionary. Had it been so, it would have been immediately clear that “bemused” is an old English term, meaning “confused.” Oh, wait a minute…I guess the name fits. Never mind….
Obama is a pig
He just tossed the rose while McCain laid the rose respectfully.
I saw it and wondered if anyone in the media did.
Thanks Michelle.
Also, at the community worker appreciation seminar at Obama’s alma mater tonight “The One” was asked what he thought when he heard about the attacks on September 11. He said the first thing he thought was how the community came together. Huh?
My first thought was there were civilians and firefighters in those buildings. Families would suffer and we would have to go to war with someone.
The fact New Yorkers and the Country came together over this was evident in the days after.
If you review the tape of his answer you can see what a full time phoney he is.
That is so true! Gosh, I can’t stand posers.
It’s sad that you always suspect the worst in people and view the world through cynical suspicious eyes. Being a Democrat, I guess it’s to be expected… that to you, things like duty, honor, and country are punch lines to be used only when necessary as convenient political props. For many Americans, they have a deep meaning. The nefarious motives you see in others is simply the reflection of your own empty soul.
Good lord.
Don’t make a fool out of yourself, BL. No one loves 9/11. I think Michelle is way off base here on Rosegate but to say she loves 9/11 is disgusting and shameful.
The way Obama carelessly tosses his rose on the pile is the same as he daily tosses his campaign opportunities to the four winds with his snivling and complaining about his opponents “not discussing the issues.” In the meantime, Obama doesn’t get around to “the issues” himself, so obsessed is he about what his opponents are saying.
Barack Obama is the product of very messy, careless thinking and personal behavior. It’s utterly shocking that such a trivial, vacuous person has gotten this far in life.
I’m sorry, I’m not the one making the memory of the dead a prop in a cheap partisan assault.
I was fortunate not to lose anyone but I stood on my office roof and watched smoke rise from the Pentagon, and called my mother to let her know that, as a part-time employee in a Senate office, I was OK. This isn’t an abstraction to me.
And when I see a bunch of morons projecting their hatred onto Barack Obama based on nothing, it makes me angry. That’s hateful, through and through.
Sad.
His little guide book “How to Run for POTUS” doesn’t cover an event like this. There is no chapter on how to act like you give a damn!
I’m pretty sure that only an empty soul would use an occasion like this to drive blog hits with loathsome and unfounded suggestions that somehow BO and wife don’t respect the dead. Cynical and suspicious — have you read the other posts? For people like you “duty, honor, and country” only exist as a lines of attack. Otherwise you wouldn’t have elected draft-slacker George Bush twice and savaged decorated veteran John Kerry and (long before that) bomber pilot George McGovern so savagely and wrongly. It’s clear that these are just words for you, otherwise you would have observed a moment of respect and allowed United States Senator Barack Obama a few moments of peace and quiet to say a few prayers.
You wear flag lapel pins, but your hearts are dark with hate.
#20 bemused lib:
By far the most ignorant and bitter comment I have read today.
bemused lib, one of my greatest memories of the seven lousy months right after 9/11 was hanging out with and buying rounds of drinks with the US steel workers who descended upon Ground Zero to cut, dismantle and remove the tons of twisted steel that remained.
I can guarantee that, had you brought that obnoxious, disrespectful attitude into any of the restaurants and/or bars that these patriots frequented, you would have found your backside firmly planted on the sidewalk out front. I know this because I saw it happen.
I’d think twice before accusing anyone here of “loving 9/11″ or using our incinerated co-workers, friends and acquaintances as political “props” if I were you, jackass.
It might even buy yourself some time to shut your mouth and just be thought a liberal fool.
BemusedLib said:
LOL, you’re actually feigning indignation that people are going after Obama on 9/11? And you’re talking about how others are full of hate?!
Seeing as how you just said this on another thread:
I apologize sincerely to those who are not piling onto the “Obama and his wife are disrespectful because they…whatever” meme in this discussion if I inadvertently included them in my comments. My comments weren’t aimed at them, or at the Steelworkers or any of the real patriots who took part in the ceremony or have had a hand in the hard and emotional work of reclaiming the site and burying the dead — or at Senator McCain.
However, I have no hesitation in calling those who have used this solemn moment to spread the lowest sort of lies the pond scum that they are. They should be ashamed and I’ll meet them outside anytime.
He’s the real deal, an old-fashioned, ill-mannered New Yawker. He really is quite a dinosaur. Most New Yorkers have been watching TV a little and noticed over the past few decades that there is a whole country out there with civilized manners. And they have adjusted. But there are a few hold-outs, as boorish as ever.
Only one word to describe Obama: gauche
Mookie,
Mrs. Malkin could care less about facts anymore. A rose is now on the cover of this site a day after it was a video of Obama using an old expression. She can’t shed her integrity fast enough to get the base to froth at the mouth at Obama.
And regarding your comments towards BemusedLib, yeah, he’s (she’s?) a little off the wall, and suggesting that MM likes 9/11 is a tad outrageous, but only a tad. No one loves using 9/11 as a political tool more than Michelle Malkin.
Thankfully, what she doesn’t understand, is that people are more afraid of another four years of GOP incompetence than of another terrorist attack. This 9/11 stuff is more of the same and people aren’t buying it.
And how offensive to the memories of those lost that she give top story space to a freakin’ rose.
First let me make sure it’s clear that I’m voting for McCain. Having said that, I must also observe that Malkin has become a parody of herself at this point. A once very compelling blog has deteriorated in a tabloid piece of junk full of demagoguery and ridiculousness. Sad and pathetic.
You’ll have to refresh my memory. I don’t recall anybody trashing McGovern’s service as a WWII bomber pilot, and I’d be first in line to condemn anyone who did.
A somber moment for Obama is the realization that he just dropped 5 points in the polls.
Its not sad or pathetic that some people know the proper procedure to place a flower at a memorial. Some people take a little bit more time, and that time shows character, and depth.
Projecting, aren’t you Rusty? I thought you were boycotting, MM? Was it short-lived?
People are genuinely worried about the War on Terror and there being another terror attack. That’s not imagined fear either.
Talk about partisan exploitation. You’re schooling someone frothing at the mouth about something that he/she doesn’t like because it’s about his/her candidate. Why don’t you and BL call off the wolves sniffing out dirt on Sarah Palin while you’re at it?
The Dems are as incompetent as the Repubs. There is no difference except one has military experience and one “contemplated” joining the military once. For you to suggest that MM is using 9/11 as a tool, well, that just means you’re a tool.
Go on with your boycott. You make me sick. You have just as little respect for the friends I lost as you do for people who don’t want part of Obummer’s glow.
Just go…you’re being a disrespectful jerk.
Indeed, God is IN the details.
Barry O, whether he tossing a rose at a memorial or hurling an insult at a lady opponent, he’s a practiced actor with an unpolished character.
Obama hasn’t the humility to kneel.
He refused to admit he was wrong to Bill O’Reilly regarding the surge. He has shown disdain for middle class America with his “bitter and clinging” remarks. He has complained to potential donors that he didn’t want to lose after “putting up with” hotel food and airplanes. When Joe Biden stated that Obama was not ready to lead, early in this campaign, Obama visibly stiffened, raised his head in a haughty manner, and looked displeased.
He is a very, very proud man.
BemusedLib said:
Were you this indignant when John Kerry savaged his fellow soldiers, comparing them to Genghis Khan?
Phony Obamaloney!
Also very, very, arrogant. He never admits making a mistake, even when he was forced into admitting that the surge had worked.
Well you see McCain wanted to place the rose while Zero had to place the rose.
Looking at the video, McCain and his wife appeared to be very solemn and humbled by being at the 9/11 memorial – Barry clearly looked like he was uncomfortable with being at the event, couldn’t even try to make an effort to appear solemn…looked like he was following McCain’s lead.
Question – where was Michelle at today? Baking cookies? Assisting kids at an inner city school? Helping the developmentally disabled? Painting a house for an elderly person? Probably couldn’t find anything to wear…
My opinion – Barry didn’t want to be there (dude was out of his comfort zone). Bad message to send out to the people that you are trying to sway to your side.
Also – very noble of Palin to go home and see her son off on his deployment – anyone hat makes issue with that obviously has not had a family member go deploy for an extended period of time…
Not having Michelle accompany Barack to Ground Zero was a major gaffe by the Democrats. She was probably kept out to prevent a major embarrasment because she’s at least as socially inept and lacking in class as he is.
The way McCain manipulated the postioning of the principals was a masterstroke by an experienced master elder statesman at work and at ease on the world stage.
When they entered and McCain greeted the four people and walked away, Obama ducked around Bloomberg looking like a little boy who’s afraid he’s going to be left behind by the grownup.
As McCain lead the way around the memorial Obama looked like a shavetail watching the dignified elder statesman and following his lead.
The McCains were dignified and classy while Obama looked like he was out of his league.
Where was Michelle O?
I cannot begin to express how impressed I am with most of the posters to this site and HA. You guys nail it time and time again. The difference between comments from the right and from libs is astounding.
Although I have strong disagreements with our Captain McCain, he is definitely the real deal. I returned from Vietnam one month before he was released and remember it like yesterday. I watched the clip of his release from Hanoi on HA this morning and his dignity and courage impressed me.
Obama is a very good example of a spoiled, lightweight kid who never grew up and for some reason thinks they are smarter than us lowlifes and the world revolves around them. An earlier poster made a good point about his lovely wife not having the class to be there on such a somber occasion. Oh wait– I forgot–Barry had to go meet w/the the former huncher in chief and have sammiches from Cosis. So in his mind we need to hurry up and get this little show over OK?
No, he didn’t.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV-gENJOs8s
He met with Clinton before the ceremony.
This is like bizarro world.
Yep, I noticed the way he tossed that flower while John & Cindy McCain placed it gently. I’m pretty sure a lot of other people did too. And honestly, my reaction wasn’t “wow, this is great, it makes Obama look callous”. I really did cringe at the lack of decorum, and wished he had acted more respectfully.
You’re right, and Michelle should issue a correction.
Did you notice the cavalier way he held that rose down against his leg? He carried himself completely like the thought going through his feeble mind was, “Can we just get this over with? I can;t believe I have to do crap like this”.
i’m sorry. I am more offended by this than I have been about anything else this piece of…
Can you just imagine what this ungrateful fool will be like should this country completely lose it’s fraking mind and elect him come Veterans and Memorial Day when he is claled to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?
This, the guy who would rather go shopping than visit the sick and injured men and women of our military.
ANyone voting for him has not an ounce of sense in their entire body. He is a disgrace and an embarrassment and a thumb in the eye of everyone serving or who has seved, injured or killind serving their country. He makes Bill Clinton look good. And I never though that to be possible.
Over 3000 Americans murdered. 343 of my Brothers, and he couldn’t get out of there fast enough, let alone collect even an ounce of respect.
And people wonder why his wife stayed home.
That was the first thing I noticed. It cost Obama nothing to bend down and place a flower on the memorial, yet he refused to even expend the slightest amount of energy.
Also note in the second video, at about minute 3:20, an FDNY officer (?) appears to pin a new flag pin onto McCain’s lapel and lean in for a hug. Don’t know if same was offered to BO.
While it is true that Obama tossed the flower, can we update the article to say that he did speak to the fireman and construction worker?
Let’s not become like the rabid Left, let us keep to facts and be nuanced in our denouncement of the big 0bama.
His awkwardness reminds me of what Mark Steyn said of him when he’s not politicking:
I am currently watching ’102 Minutes That Shook the World” on History Channel HD right now, and it is like I am back at the station, watching it all unfold again. I am feeling all the feelings, remembering everything…trying to get ahold of my wife who was on the Bay Bridge by the time I reached her, waking up my partner after the second tower fell and telling him that “They’re gone. The world Trade Center…they’re gone.” The unknowing. The tones repeatedly going off, all of us not knowing how long we were going to be there, what was next, where was next…And the tears are just as real as they were then.
You libs, you who just couldn’t stop your crap for even one F’n day…complaining about what is being shown, about these things being brought up etc.
You disgust me. Say what you want concerning this statement, but you disgust me.
This needs to be shown. It needs to be replayed over and over. Not hidden, not editted, but shown in it’s entirety AT LEAST every year.
Too many have forgotten. Too many have lied about it. Too many just don’t Fn get it.
And you disgust me.
Michelle M., I apologize if that went over the line. But sometimes a person can only take just so much.
BHO is a tosser, no doubt, but I don’t see how this should be a lead story. While it is not trivial, there are bigger stories like ABC’s hatchet job on Palin.
That’s how I’d expect Mahmūd Ahmadinejād to act were he permitted near that site. Very uncomfortable. ..and it makes me feel very uncomfortable about just who this Obama person really is..
Obamas hatred for America shows through more and more each day. It’s plain to see, but many simply choose not to see it.
Michelle,
I watched the entire ceremony on FOX starting from when Obama and Bloomberg were waiting kerbside at the top of the ramp for McCain to arrive through to the departure of the McCains.
Obama went through the receiving line reps first at McCain’s invitation, and so greeted everyone first, before going round to the back of the line again while the McCains were completing their own pass. He did not ignore anyone, and so is owed an apology for the misconstruction ensuing from edited videos of the event.
I too was struck by the puerility of Obama’s flower-girl rose tossing.
A more interesting dynamic to me occurred after their pool-side prayers, when the foursome, led by McCain, greeted the honor guard of First Responders circling the memory pool as they wended their way back to the ramp.
All the resplendently dress-uniformed Responders respectfully acknowledged their individual salutations, but two (widely-separated) officers, movingly, enclasped McCain’s right hand in BOTH their white-gloved ones, as if to support the weight of his partially-immobilized right arm, clearly surprising McCain. After a brief intense exchange, the first took off his FDNY pin and pinned it on McCain’s lapel. The second officer, after a similar embracing exchange with McCain, then chose to take off his pin and fumblingly attach it to Cindy McCain’s lapel. No other officer did that for Obama – granted, he was the only one who came festooned with a small flag lapel pin – and only one officer in the circle, a black female Policeperson, embraced him.
Maybe these Responders didn’t get their Unions’ diktat?
I’ll never understand the constant leftist tripe that Republicans “exploit 9/11 for political purposes,” or similar language. How is it expoitative, or manipulative, to remember what happened that day? To remember why it happened? To remember who did it? To consider whether the conditions that led to that day still exist?
It’s not “playing to peoples’ fears” anymore than libs did by scaring schoolchildren with nuclear holocaust back in the ’80′s.
It’s not “exploiting 9/11″ to remember the defining moment of last several decades, to analyze it, to allow it and the conditions that led to it to inform our worldview now and into the near future. It’s called living in the real world.
RetFireman (#s71-72):
I salute you.
Be at peace as we make just war on the Jihadis.
I knew I should have stayed away today. I just knew it would be more of the same from them. However, it isn’t the same. It only frows worse, grows more filthy and disgusting from them with each passing year.
I shudder to think how this day will be represented in history books and classes by the time I have grandchildren and they reach school age. Considering who it is that teaches these classes, who it is that runs the media, who it is that not only writes but approves the text books to be used in class…
I am horrified at the thought of what it will become.
It was such a horrible crime. It still hurts. I am still furious about it.
Mayhap there is a type of pain that must remain, lest the memory fade and the lessons go away.
A leader leads and a follower follows, who is following who?
Frankly, I don’t like 9/11 being demeaned with politics or agendas of any kind, by either party. Even if Obama had shot a flaming rose from a bow and arrow, I think it should have gone uncommented upon.
Thing is, gestures of that nature means something that transcends politics. That is yet another thing that people just plain don’t understand.
I am still angry because of the events of 9/11. When it occurred I called my detailer and told him to send me to Afghanistan, but he would not (I was in a critical nuclear weapons rate). Now, having been retired for 2 1/2 years I still consider going, although I think that they have little use for an old, fat retired Chief.
I appreciate the desire to avoid politicizing the events and the commemoration of 9/11, but the thought that someone would be so flippant just serves to renew my anger.
We need to continue to kill the enemy. We should not even consider negotiating. We are winning. Winners do not ask for negotiations. Those who are being destroyed ask for negotiations.
Please forgive my passion. It is late, I just got home and I am into my second martini (I am working swing shift). To think that anyone who would presume to lead our country in a war (which Obama agrees that we are in) and be so careless just makes my blood boil.
+Photi
I understand that, I would just like us to take the high road on 9/11.
Believe me, I’m with you on everything else you said.
To Flyover State #86;
Thank you. Actually, we are in agreement.
I am going to commence relaxing. Good night.
+Photi
To Flyover State;
I am so rude. Please forgive me.
I don’t know why you are up so late, but I hope that you have a good evening and a good night.
+Photi
Who was it that pinned something (?) on both McCain and his wife but not on “The One”? And what was it that he pinned? Anyone know?
And I too noticed that “The One” simply tossed the rose while McCain and Cindy gently placed their roses. Body language really does communicate reams, doesn’t it?
WAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!
Now you know what we’ve been putting up with when the lame stream media and the moonbats pull the same cr@@ on McCain and Palin day in and day out…..
It is interesting to see John and Cindy McCain and Barack Obama working their way around the circle.
John and Cindy McCain are awkwardly shuffling sideways from person to person, almost like they are defending in basketball, keeping their shoulders squared to the people on the opposite side of the rail. That way, when they appear before the next person, their shoulders are squared and the conversation happens one-on-one in a very intimate little zone.
Barack Obama, on the other hand, fluidly crosses one foot over the other while moving, and is always keeping his right shoulder tipped in toward the rail. This allows him to reach forward strongly and he appears quite athletic and graceful. However, as he approaches the person on the other side of the rail, he is already pointed away, as if he is already leaving. There is no squared-up closed zone between the individuals, and less intimacy in the greeting. At a few points, Obama actually winds up with his right shoulder facing at somebody he has already greeted, ignoring them as he stares at the back of Cindy McCain, waiting for her to move.
Now, admittedly, Barack Obama had the harder problem here, because McCain was establishing his own pace and Obama was following and had to keep McCain’s tempo. I would say, that as a matter of personal style, McCain seems to take longer with each transaction. The only chance Obama had to control pace was at the very end of the circle, where he lagged behind, making a great show out of greeting the last woman on the line, after breezing past the previous fifty people.
It is a small thing, perhaps. One should not read too much into these things. But the impression I take away is that McCain is willing to look a liitle awkward and old in order to maintain what he values, which is that squared-up face-to-face interation, while Obama is more cooly detatched, and is more concerned with looking smooth and athletic than he is with the people on the other side of the rail.
Always enjoy the debate on this blog…a little off topic, but I’m praying for all Texans staring down Ike. This is huge storm…y’all be safe.
Obama is an unmitigated moron and his disrespectful, arrogant behavior makes my blood boil. I’d really like to see a group photo of the dumb asses that support him . . . just so I would know exactly what fools look like.
Please, I am not making a joke.
These are the people skills he exhibits and he was a “community organizer?” Apparently, there were some people in the “community” he was in yeterday that made him uncomfortable.
I’ll reserve judgment on the rose toss (the design of the of the memorial had resulted in others apparently tossing flowers too), however that doesn’t diminish the fact that, in addition to being a far left moonbat, Barry isn’t “ready for prime time”!
No Michelle Obama? Really? I guess when you have only been proud of your country for about a year you couldn’t possibly feel anything for what happened in 2001.