Fran at FranIAm posted the story of John McCain's first wife, Carol. As she notes, it's been posted elsewhere. To give McCain his due, he has taken responsibility for the the break-up of his first marriage, but I did not know the whole story. It doesn't make him look good. Carol seems a lovely and forgiving person. God bless her.
Fran's story is from the UK. I wonder if the story would be more prominently covered in the US media if a Democratic candidate had a history like this.
Of course, we've seen the intense coverage of Michelle and Barack Obama's fist bump, as Media Matters notes, especially the nonsense at Fox News by E. D. Hill.
Teasing a segment on the "gesture everyone seems to interpret differently," Fox News' E.D. Hill said: "A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? ... We'll show you some interesting body communication and find out what it really says." In the ensuing discussion with a "body language expert," Hill referred to the "Michelle and Barack Obama fist bump or fist pound," but at no point did she explain her earlier reference to "a terrorist fist jab."
Media Matters has the video of the segment, if by some miracle you have not already seen it ad nauseam.
It's vital to the future of the country that we know the precise meaning of this gesture. Was it a code signal to the terrorists?
UPDATE: As Atrios says, "Terrorists Everywhere" Check it out.
Clearly this women never watches any sports if she thinks that fist bump is such a radical gesture. (Either that or we have a whole lot of athlete terrorists in this country.)
ReplyDeletesigh
Ruth, IMHO, it doesn't necessarily mean that she didn't know. She wanted to say what she said, whether she knew or not. And her expert on body language blew E. D. out of the water.
ReplyDeleteYou must be all mad, mustn't you?
ReplyDeleteIt is only you Americans who do these bumps.
I don't recall even footballers do it over here.
Göran, perhaps we are all mad. Perhaps you have your own gestures "over there". More than implying that Obama was a terrorist, I think E. D. was reminding us all that he is black (and dangerous?) and that he was using a gesture common to black people, which it obviously is not. As the body language expert said, the younger generation would think nothing of it. Obama also came close to a fanny pat, but the anchor person called it a pat on the back. Anyway, I thought they looked cool, but that's me.
ReplyDeleteIn what holes do some of these Foxes live? The gesture is transparently congratulatory, followed by the "thumbs up" to say nothing of the fanny pat -- of course, both of those mean something else entirely in the Middle East...
ReplyDelete"Foxes have holes" in their heads!
My grandkids, in their teens, do that fist-to-fist thing all the time. It has to do with youth, not race.
ReplyDeleteOh, geez. Mother of God, help us, they are all nuts.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me, by the way, of a Jon Stewart episode (which I now realize may have been a take-off on this very thing) over a month ago, during the Pastor Wright flap, where Senior Black Correspondent Larry Wilmore talked about "Blanguage" -- have a look at the video. HYSTERICAL.
As has been written about elsewhere, there was the fist bump and then the President's chest bump.
ReplyDeleteTo the first I say so what, to the second I saw "eeww."
Jane, that was hilarious. They were talking about when Obama scratched his face with his middle finger, either while or right after he was talking about Clinton. Some said the gesture was meant to insult her.
ReplyDeleteBlanguage. I'll have to remember that.
yes, the Carol McCain story is sad - and not exactly unusual. The more famous example is Newt Gingrich handing his wife divorce papers when she was in hospital with cancer.
ReplyDeleteNancyP
When we lived in Scottsdale in 03/04 (my first year in grad school) I worked part time in a chain's wine shop and a certain politician's wife was quite the regular visitor when in town. The poor thing must have been entertaining _a_lot_ because God knows no scrawny little blond could drink that much cheap vodka, (could she?)
ReplyDeleteI'm speechless.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, Dennis, you know a celebrity.
ReplyDeleteGrandmère wrote: "Göran, perhaps we are all mad. Perhaps you have your own gestures "over there". More than implying that Obama was a terrorist, I think E. D. was reminding us all that he is black (and dangerous?) and that he was using a gesture common to black people..."
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he was ;=) But you still have a problem it seems.
But you still have a problem it seems.
ReplyDeleteGöran, indeed we do. I wish that we had only one problem.