[UPDATED] Obama is Listening to His Handlers Too Much, Denies Little Boy a Fist Bump
July 2, 2008
Update: This story has since been debunked. Obama did not deny a child a fist bump.
Remember when Al Gore tried to be an alpha male? And then there was that whole thing with earth tones? A man who was once a reasonably inspirational speaker was transformed by his political consultants into the dullest political candidate in recent memory.
I think Barack Obama is listening to the same people.
It was the fist bump heard around the world — and apparently the backlash has gotten to Senator Obama because he’s acting all funny about it.
He recently refused to share a fist bump with a young supporter when visiting a school:
As he left [the classroom], a boy tried to give him a fist bump. Obama said no.
“If I start that …†his voice trailed off.
If you start that, what? What, Senator Obama?
Will your supporters offer you fist bumps instead of handshakes? Probably.
Will your supporters start using the fist bump to salute one another? They already have. I know I certainly have.
Will right wing commentators with nothing better to do pick on you for it? Duh!
Will you retain your humanity, your authenticity, your relatability, your pizazz? I should hope so.
Come on dude! Please don’t go the Gore route. Fist bumps for all!
Update: Almost forgot to give due props for the story to my good friend Jason Preston. That would have been unfortunate.
I read these observations with the backdrop of a world of so much distortion and people going off half-cocked and projectionism of self onto others.
I read what Mark Halperin wrote as Obama suggesting simply that he did feel like fist bumping with the kid and every other kid. Think about it: he did this fist bump with his wife and then everyone got all tickled by it and everyone was doing it, most awkwardly. What was an intimate gesture with his wife became something quite different, devaluing the meaning such a fist bump might have for Obama and his wife.
If it were me, I’d want to downplay the frenzy as well.
Dan: Then he should just come out and say, “ya know, that’s something I just do with Michelle.”
Why? Why does he have to justify that?
lame! he should just make up his own secret handshake with the kid…
…or just belly-bump him like bush did at the AFA graduation. i know there are a lot of bush haters, but you gotta admit that was pretty awesome.
Dan: Because he’s a public figure and otherwise people are going to think he’s dissing them.
Deb: I agree. An Obama secret handshake would be sweet.
I don’t think this is worth getting all riled up about:
This is from a former Clinton supporter: the press is lying to you. This thing came from a single pool report, and then was continued by that fool, Maureen Dowd. It NEVER HAPPENED. The boy wanted Obama to sign his hand. You can review the videotape. Gore NEVER said he “invented” the Internet, nor that he “discovered” Love Canal. These are press-manufactured lies. You all should read Bob Somerby’s excellent blog, dailyhowler.com. Really. There are evidently parts of the Obama campaign who don’t realize how much crap the mainstream press has been making up, and for years. The “liberal” media stopped existing somewhere about 1978.
Andy - You need to correct your post. Even you fell for a distorted story as Jim pointed out. So, at least correct your mistake and go after those who are trying to twist anything Obama does to make him look bad.
Alan S
Oops - I guess that was Teresa’s post. Well, Teresa, I guess I am asking you to correct your post.
Alan
My previous comment included video of the incident. Not sure why you didn’t display it.
Here’s a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSdQyDnyVt8
Dan: Video doesn’t display from commenters. If you’ll leave a link, as you did there. I’ll go through and embed the video.
Thank you, Teresa. This is just what we have to do about these phony incidents. They did it to Gore. They did it to Kerry. It was done, to some extent, to Hillary. (Yes, I know, but review the events in five years.) It’s terrifying, in many ways, because we can’t rely on the real story coming out. We have to dig it up. We have to stick it in their faces. Sure, Obama has to counterattack, but I think he’s pretty good at that. They’re trying to separate him from his netroots. That can’t happen.