Duck and weave!

[Will B]

Iraqi television correspondent Muntadar al-Zeidi threw his shoes, today, at President Bush during a news conference in Baghdad. From 20 feet away he yelled in Arabic, "This is a farewell kiss, you dog!" and thew both shoes one after the other. Bush still has pretty good reflexes and dodged both. In true Bush fashion he said, "So what if the guy threw a shoe at me? If you want the facts, it was a size 10!"

IMHO, this is one of Bushes more endearing qualities...being able to take an awkward situation and make light of it. It will be interesting to see how Obama will react in situations like this...

YouTube - Bush Comes Under Shoe Attack in Baghdad

 

[scooterbug44]

Bush is able to laugh it off because he is a twit! Obama would handle the situation w/ aplomb, but as he isn't HATED abroad, I predict less flying footwear during his presidency.

Double uber-insult if you know their culture - dogs and feet/shoes are both very unclean! Just being touched by a foot or a shoe is a major deal - so chucking them publicly at a leader while calling names .

 

[Will B]

Oh...hurling of shoes is a huge insult. It's about as bad as it gets in the Arabic word.

I'm not exactly sure that being a twit and being able to diffuse a situation run hand in hand. If you can explain that logically, I'd be willing to listen, but to me it just sounds like you're looking for any way to be able to call him a name.

And I'm curious at how you know O would handle it with aplomb. We still don't know who he is. I'm not saying he wouldn't. I'm just saying I don't know how you can say with such certainty that he would. If one of those shoes were to ever knock down one of O's teleprompters, there's no tellin' what kind of international situation he might cause by his speaking off the cuff!
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Normally, I stay out of here, but for reasons I can't explain, I really felt like stirring the pot today!

 

[scooterbug44]

My thinking was: Bush is either too ignorant or too oblivious to reality to realize the gravity of the insult - thus he is able to easily laugh it off. Twit was the nice word.

I say Obama would handle it with aplomb because every time I hear him I think "how nice it is that we have elected a leader I can stand to hear speak" and he seems to be quite good at bantering/speaking.

 

[full time]

My thinking was: Bush is either too ignorant or too oblivious to reality to realize the gravity of the insult - thus he is able to easily laugh it off. Twit was the nice word.

I say Obama would handle it with aplomb because every time I hear him I think "how nice it is that we have elected a leader I can stand to hear speak" and he seems to be quite good at bantering/speaking.

Hopefully, Bush just showed humor and restraint in public but in private went berzerk and ordered the offender waterboarded and sent to Gitmo .... without shoes.

 

[scooterbug44]

ordered the offender waterboarded and sent to Gitmo .... without shoes.

:rofl:

 

[Matt J]

Bush handled it like a frat boy being caught by his girl friend with another girl. :roll:

 

[Matt J]

Now that I watched the video I noticed the secret service didn't exactly knock themselves over to get at him. I guess no one was willing to take a shoe for the President.

 

[scooterbug44]

I guess they figure if he had a weapon, he wouldn't be throwing shoes!

 

[TooFarTampa]

Endearing? What on earth is endearing about George W. Bush?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/12/12/BL2008121201873.html?hpid=opinionsbox1