Barack Fingers The Problem

My goodness, Barack giving Hillary the finger!  Soooo Presidential.  Oh, well, maybe Mr. Multi-culti thinks it is a Hawaiian Good Luck sign.  The LA Times blog has the short version with a still; it's at about 1:10 on this extended version hosted by Matt Yglesias and promoted for the Jay-Z shout out at about 2:20.

A commenter at the LA Times helps the old fogies with the code-breaking:

The reaction of the crowd cannot be explained by anything other than the gesture of the raised middle finger "scratching" Obama's cheek. That gesture is one of a series, including the Jay-Z shoulder dust-off and the "got to scrape that sh*t right off your shoes" gesture, not to mention the Best of Reverend Wright "ridin' dirty" hand motion presented in the guise of a knife twist and quickly performed twice, with cheers from the crowd and smirks from Obama.

Obama bends over and does something right after the "Dirt off your shoulders" gesture, which I now understand is the "shit off your shoes" shout out to the Rolling Stones.

Man oh man, Barack is just so cool!  Geez, he gave Hillary the finger - that has to nail down the Beavis and Butthead crowd.  Hope and change or you can go, well, hope yourself.

Whatever - Will Smith gave Tommie Lee Jones the face-scratch finger in "Men In Black", and it didn't hurt his career.  Of course, it was a movie.  And it was obvious and funny, and meant to be obvious and funny and people laughed, just like they did in the Barack video.  And later they got cool guns and blew things up, just like Barack will do if the Iranians attack Israel.  'Cause he's cool, too. 

ERRATA:  Waddya mean, my sentence saying Barack will blow things up if the Iranians attack Israel is a bit hazy as to just who he will blow up?  Is there any doubt?  Tom Coburn!

EAGERLY AWAITING:  I am like a kid at Christmas (sorry, Barack, Ramadan) waiting for the "Geez, there goes the Freak Show again, all worked up about a little bit of disrespect among friends, and just when we were about resume our long march on the high road of problems and policies" postings from the usual suspects.  Bring it on!

Personally, I think a debate about whether aspiring candidates should publicly give each other the finger will be fascinating.  But folks who can't wait for "Is Obama's health care plan actually universal, Part CXXIV" would surely be disappointed.

MORE:  The ChiTrib fingers the problem as well.  It's a new kind of politics, all right.  Let's move ahead of the curve here - when Barack apologizes/explains/rationalizes, we know he needs to provide a balancing sacrificial righty, a la Wright/granma and Ayers/Coburn.  Dick Cheney has to be the favorite, right, even though his instructions to Pat Leahy were in the relative privacy of the Senate backrooms?  Any others?

SWITCHING FROM BIER TO WHINE:  Jiminy, no Matt Drudge yet (1 PM EST)?  What kind of a sorry noise machine is this?

Comments

[Danube of Thought]

Well, I suppose I am the last man standing who thinks the gesture was not the Hawaiian peace sign, and that the crowd reaction was prompted by the remark that Hillary was "in her element."

In honor of the Sweet Virginia stuff, I'm gonna go see "Shine a Light" in Imax this afternoon.

[Ranger]

A good Republican 527 should do up an add with that clip and:

Hey, Hil and all your supporters... Don't let the door hit you in the as......

[Danube of Thought]

Good God--if you follow the "Rolling Stones" link, you get the most bollixed-up version of the lyrics you could possibly imagine. What's up with that?

[Appalled]

DoT:

So, is this "Fingergate"? Or "UpYourQuiddak"?

[michaelt]

An enormously thoughtful gesture, it was....

[Danube of Thought]

Don't we know it'll be Fingergate overnight? Yours is the first use I've seen, Appalled, but I have a hunch you'll see many an imitator if the story has any legs.

[MayBee]

ha! Appalled!

[PeterUK]

Of course Barack Hussein Obama was giving Hillary the finger,he was simply indicating his support for free proctology for all.

[hit and run]

TM, call your office!

Fingers aren't the only "middle" going on today...

I think you shoulda gotten at least a hat tip

[Don]

Oh come on you idiot, how did you miss this one?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_bylg-Jjz8

[clarice]

Whew--I must say I hesitated before reading something from Hit on a post with the word "finger" in it.

[Tom Maguire]

Wow, hit, my secret plan comes together. Hmm, was my plan so secret I never mentioned it? I figured every mention of McCain's middle name sort of emphasized that we couldn't use the Ultimate Fear Bomb.

[Cecil Turner]

Oh come on you idiot, how did you miss this one?

My, that was pithy. And is (a very strained) tu quoque really the standard for hopey-changiness now?

SWITCHING FROM BIER TO WHINE

Is that "bier" as in "im Himmel gibt's kein"? Or as in "A stand on which a corpse or a coffin containing a corpse is placed before burial"? Because in contrast to earlier gaffes, I think this one may well sound the death knell for the Obamatons. It's simply too cute for the MSM bytemeisters to ignore, and I seriously doubt it'll wear well with the electorate (particularly independents).

[Don]

au contraire jackass, I'm just pointing out that the increasingly shrill maguire has his panties in a knot that Obama gives a dubious finger (that's generous-I so little give a shit I won't waste time watching the video), and then asked what's the Repub parallel, referencing Cheney's "fuck you" and ignoring Bush shooting the bird directly to the camera.

maguire's an idiot. The point stands.

[Jane]

Yet you follow him around like a toad.

[Don]

Not really sweety-I check in here from time to time lately to see what the few, the pathetic, the 28% that think Bush isn't an idiot are chattering about, but I never stay long.

[Don]

"and I seriously doubt it'll wear well with the electorate"

yeah, and you're one of the brainiacs who thought the American public was going to rally around old Tom Delay to keep Terry Schiavo suffering. Political genius are ye.

[Tom Maguire]

"A stand on which a corpse or a coffin containing a corpse is placed before burial"

I was thinking I have come to bury Obama, not to praise him.

Geez, Don, so much anger. No place for that in hopeful and everchanging ObamaNation. Have a great weekend hoping, and changing.

[Don]

I'm bitter you moron.

You're too stupid to even me use as a straight man.

[Danube of Thought]

Don, I'm rallying around John McCain. And he's going to beat this poor elitist Obama like a rented mule come November, and you can sit aroung thinking up new obscenities to show us what a dolt you are.

[Franko]

My theory is that Barack is trying desperately to lose to Hilary, because
he knows if he goes up against McCain he will get trounced and he'll never get another shot at the presidency. He wants to live to see another day, but can't make it obvious, so he's doing stuff that's outrageous but he can later claim was misinterpreted.

Unfortunately for him the voters refuse to swing over to Hilary! Ha!

Let's see what else he tries to pull before the convention!

[boris]

too stupid to even me use as a straight man

Don we now our ...

[Cecil Turner]

Heh. Don's starting to read like a primer on fallacies. Obviously a nerve got hit there somewhere, eh?

[Don]

Cryptic and idiotic as usual Turner.

If I can see farther than anyone here, it's only because I'm knee deep in fools.

[michaelt]

The Democratic Convention started already?

[Danube of Thought]

No wonder the fool doesn't hang around here long. Dopes who split their infinitives quickly discover that overmatched feeling.

[Don]

"My theory is that Barack is trying desperately to lose to Hilary, because
he knows if he goes up against McCain he will get trounced and he'll never get another shot at the presidency."

Here's what I'm talking about. I believe this guy is serious.

Sorry-but the above thought (barely) is just stupid.

ANY ONE ELSE ENDORSE IT?

[Cecil Turner]

Go watch the video . . . at least it's amusing, and it's obvious you need a chuckle.

(And if you really need me to point out the logical flaws in [paraphrased] "Bush did it, too" or "you guys are all fools," you really ought not to use the term "idiot.")

[Don]

Dear Devoid of Thought,

Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be
(Shakespeare, Sonnet 142).

I so love to (directly) tell you to (seriously) shut up.

[Don]

Turner, I don't need you to point out logical flaws.

I do need you to cut my lawn and do some weeding. Call me.

[Enlightened]

Uh Oh - Obamasylum is missing another idiot....looks like they let out the Don to clean up another poopy Messiah diaper.

[Enlightened]

Scoot on back to the fever swamp would ya - they're in desperate need of empty cranial caps.

[Danube of Thought]

"Shakespeare used only one [split infinitive], and it is a special case as it is clearly a syntactical inversion for the sake of rhyme." It also fell into disfavor roughly a century thereafter.

What's your excuse, simpleton?

[bgates]

Boris, that was wonderful.

I never stay long.
No reason we should be the only ones to experience that Don magic.

[PeterUK]

"You're too stupid to even me use as a straight man."

Straight men no good to you then Don?

[Maggie]

There's video available from the side angle, and Obama is unmistakeably scratching with two fingers. People making an issue of this are going to look like fools.

[Barney Frank]

Apparently Don lacks sufficient funds to utilize the preferred Democratic methods of stress reduction as popularized by Elliot Spitzer and/or Timothy Leary.

[PeterUK]

"If I can see farther than anyone here, it's only because I'm knee deep in fools".

Where are you Don? Sounds like the DNC,KOS or moveon.

[Don]

Why do you guys think I'm stressed? It's fun to abuse you because the opposition is so weak.

Now I've got this Devoid of Cat trying to pin outmoded grammar rules on me. Here's from your link, Retard of Thought:

"Present reference texts of usage deem simple split infinitives unobjectionable in many situations."

So you're invited to promptly piss off.

P.S. Maggie, don't think these people are concerned with the truth.

[Don]

"Straight men no good to you then Don?"

Feeble. But I give you points for at least trying to show a little wit.

[Cecil Turner]

I don't need you to point out logical flaws.

Ah, not so cryptic after all, eh? Let's review the bidding, shall we?

Shorter version:
1. Never happened (I didn't watch it, so . . .);
2. Bush did it too;
3. You guys are all idiots;
4. I'm so outta here.

Obama is unmistakeably scratching with two fingers. People making an issue of this are going to look like fools.

Right. Try that ChiTrib link at 1:23 and run that by me again.

[PeterUK]

"There's video available from the side angle, and Obama is unmistakeably scratching with two fingers".

Try it,if you can do it,you might get a date with Putin.
Index,second or both fingers,third finger most unnatural.Perhaps little finger,but on its own or with all fingers.

[PeterUK]

"But I give you points for at least trying to show a little wit."

Yes you are a little wit are you not Don.

[Enlightened]

Times up - the shit-o-meter is full of Don.

Wahhhh. And he has nowhere else to go but back to Diarrheaville of ShitKosdummieland.

TM will just need to air out the tank for a few seconds, brainless turDons have no substance worth wasting a full flush on.

[Danube of Thought]

Don, how do you like your boy's chances come November? Feel it all slipping away, do you? Wasn't it only yesterday, right after Iowa, that you had that giddy feeling of...of...well, of hope, of change? Weren't you one of the ones we'd been waiting for?

The taste in your juvenile mouths must be quite bitter these days. Oh, it's going to be brutal, mark that statement well.

But try to learn from it, and to grow.

[Rick Ballard]

My problem is that if BHO is actually flipping her off then I share a sentiment with him. In fact, I'm a little envious of him having done so on national TV.

Can we really fault him? I mean, who wouldn't...?

[GMax]

A little NITwit ( there I fixed it for ya!)

[PeterUK]

Mr Ballard,
"My problem is that if BHO is actually flipping her off then I share a sentiment with him. In fact, I'm a little envious of him having done so on national TV."

Could be he was making the sign to ward off the evil eye.

[Danube of Thought]

I believe poor Don has gone back to waiting for himself. Gonna be a while, but surely at some point he'll present himself to himself, and then there'll be one hell of a happy rally, with lots of college kids and everything...

[Enlightened]

Right - smells better already.