Friday, April 18, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

Measuring Whether Obama's One Finger Salute Was Deliberate

I had talked to a Republican consultant about the debate, and one of his observations was that as bad as the debate was for Obama, one thing he had avoided was any "YouTube moments" that would offer some sort of easily-forwarded, frequently-watched defining gaffe.

Well, maybe he provided that YouTube moment in his first speech after the debate.

Interestingly, I was among the skeptics that Obama's face-scratching in yesterday's speech constituted flipping the bird at Hillary. But the crowd certainly seemed to think so, and it's not just the guys at RedState who are saying it was a subtle middle finger to her, but the Los Angeles Times thinks so, too. (The picture at the Times site seems to more clearly indicate that one finger was used in the scratch, not two.)

Some people will love the idea that a candidate flipped the bird to another candidate. (Didn't some Congressman do this a few years back on the floor of the House?) But I think it's tough to argue that one is changing the tone, unifying the country, healing people's souls, etc., when you're making a gesture more frequently seen when somebody cuts you off on the Interstate.

04/18 08:57 AMShare