AlisonH
Making progress… Sorry about the fuzzies; I knit better than I photograph, this was my fourth try.
Did anybody else see this? We were watching the debate last night via MSNBC, and McCain and Obama were shaking hands with the crowd afterwards, the thing still being aired. Just before the cameras cut out–and I’m guessing McCain must have thought they already had–the two men happened to find themselves next to each other again, and Obama reached out with a warm smile to shake McCain’s hand again, not as part of the debate performance but as two colleagues.
And McCain stood there stone-faced, absolutely refusing to. Cindy McCain finally shook Obama’s to cover for her husband’s gaffe.
(Edited to add: with the help of Momo Fali, this is the scene from a completely different camera and angle to what MSNBC showed. In this one, you can see McCain patting Obama on the back, but when Obama turns in response and reaches his hand out, McCain steps back away from him and waves him towards Cindy McCain. I would say that that was still rude, but it definitely is far better than standing there arms stock still like it had seemed. Thank you for the link and the clarification!)
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Thank you, thank you, thank you! I asked people at work if they saw that and noone did. I waited to see if any of the news commentators would mention it and noone did there also.
Sitting in my comfortable living room, it felt very akward to me when that happened. Besides referring to Obama by McCain as “that one”, and his reputation for having a bad temper, I think he had difficulty controlling it last night.
Comment by Joansie 10.08.08 @ 10:40 amI saw the tail end of that and wondered why Cindy was shaking his hand (it seemed odd); I’m glad to know what led up to it. McCain’s performance last night was just graceless all the way around. But I loved Obama’s response to the question about whether health care was a right — no hesitation, no question, just a firm statement. That’s what I’m talking about!
Comment by Jocelyn 10.08.08 @ 11:58 amI didn’t see this, but I heard about it. Such a shame that people can’t be civil.
Comment by Momo Fali 10.08.08 @ 12:37 pmYES!! I did see this and was wondering why the commentators made no mention, considering McCain did pretty much the same thing at the first debate! Roger Ebert wrote a great piece about McCain’s debate behavior and common courtesy. (sorry–can’t figure out how to link it!)
Comment by Michele 10.08.08 @ 1:17 pmHmmm..a scary thought you bring up…the flip side of this coin may be something none of us would want to know. It’s a well-known fact in other countries that the our media here doesn’t give us Americans all the facts on anything. If they didn’t mention this faux pas, (and I’m sure they would have if they thought it would have made McCain look bad without anyone wondering why he would go to that length to be rude in public) then I shudder to think why not.
Jaded and neutral I am. I don’t believe anything any politician has to say.
Thanks for the original post, and thanks for the clarification. I loved watching the video clip. Disdain, that’s the word I was looking for today.
Comment by RobinM 10.08.08 @ 4:13 pmOh yes all of my hand dyes will be at stitches east. I can’t wait to see you again.
Comment by Dianne 10.08.08 @ 4:51 pmHa… I didn’t see it. Amusing. Just as much figured.
PEEK a BOO (just saw you on Yarn Harlot’s, I’m a bit behind in my bloglines.)
Comment by Alicia 10.09.08 @ 11:53 amLeave a comment
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