I would hope our presidents would all shake hands with world leaders. It’s just what civilized people do. Raul Castro Castro is a world leader, of sorts. Why wear political differences on one’s shoulder? Snubbing someone is no way to establish communication.
John McCain seems to forget about Muammar Gaddafi. Didn’t we bomb him? Didn’t he kill Americans? Thought so. Convenient amnesia.
Then there is the matter of the selfie with a couple of heads of state. Who cares. Seriously…who really cares. This is the age of technology. I am glad to see a president who doesn’t feel he is too good to take a selfie with other world leaders. How very unstaged. The argument that it was a funeral? Not really. It was a memorial service to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela. There was lots of dancing, clapping and celebration of life.
The haters just all need to change the channel.
There’s low class, there’s no class, and then there’s taking selfies at a funeral.
With respect to Castro, I’m only surprised there wasn’t tongue involved.
My personal experience of funerals? The entire gamut of human experience is on display, especially humor. We fought, we cried, we laughed. We took photos, we broke things, we ended things, we started things. We smelled clothing of the person who was gone before putting them into bags and longed for them… we shook hands with the one person the departed had differences with…and washed them afterwards. It’s only magnified on the world stage.
Indeed, as Moon says in her last sentence, anyone who really gets worked up about things like this is just choosing to wallow in negativity.
Ditto. Wallowing in negativity IS a choice. Unfortunately for us, it guarantees an income for some.
I guess it was juvenile and un-presidential, but I tend to think of funerals as celebrations. When I go, I want my best friends drinking wine, gossiping and laughing about something like how stupid “50 Shades of Grey” is. If someone is offended, then they didn’t know me very well in life anyway.
Big deals made out of nothing.
Obama once again proves that he is a Muslim Kenyan Communist Socialist Castro apologist.
John McCain knows that one does not shake hands or otherwise acknowledge the human presence of fellow world leaders that abuse, exploit, suppress or otherwise take advantage of their people. This saves Mr. McCain from the effort of shaking hands with probably 70% of the worlds leaders, including Russia, China, Viet Nam, much of South America, most of the Middle East, and most of Africa. Much less wear and tear on the old arm, and fewer colds from contact.
I am SO glad old John never got near the White House!
McCain was always a favorite of the Opposition so long as he was figuratively sticking a public shiv in the backs of his fellow Repubs. But, let him try to hammer one of their own for something, and he becomes “old John.” I agree that McCain’s comment on the handshake was uncalled for, but the “outrage” from the other side still makes me laugh.
What outrage? What other side? Anyone who groused about a handshake is simply looking for things to pick at. I would expect any American president to shake hands at a memorial service unless we were at war with the country.
Be nice if Alec Gross was released. Maybe he mentioned it.
As for the “selfie”. Looks to me as if the woman is the one holding the phone/camera or whatever. Can’t believe so much is being made of this AND the shaking of hands.
Does it really mean anything?
Remember the good old “National Brotherhood Week (Tom Lehrer(
“Step up and shake the hand
of someone … you can’t stand
you can tolerate it if you try,”
Not much…….until The Daily Beast reports that there have been some secret “negotiations” between Cuba and the US, usually via third parties, over the past few months. If that turns out to be true, the handshake becomes more interesting.
It sounds like a conspiracy theory to me. I don’t see why we don’t restore normal relations with them. We have certainly restored normal relations with a lot of other countries that things have been “strained” with. Vietnam comes to mind immediately.
Nothing would clean out those old communists in Cuba faster than opening the place up to trade and tourism with the US. One can only hope that there is something afoot. A good starting point would be for the Brothers Castro to release Mr. Gross as soon as Raul gets home from funeralling.
“Opposition,” huh! Interesting use of words. I WAS opposed to the GOP/Rove dirty tricks against McCain like “black love child” and even attacking his service to his country. And I do appreciate McCain’s resistance to the more extreme elements of his party.
But sometimes the man just needs to learn to keep the old trap shut. He’s making sour grapes into an art form…want some cheese to go with that whine?
LOL
There is a bigger story here that NOBODY has mentioned, Michele’s response/actions during and after the selfie!
Don’t kill me on the source, it’s the first thing that pops up in a google search: http://nypost.com/2013/12/10/michelle-annoyed-by-obamas-selfie-at-mandela-memorial/
If I were sitting next to a hot blonde at ANY event, and yuck in’ it up and then taking a giddy selfie with her I would FEEL the eye daggers in about 0.25 seconds. Then in the ‘after’ pics she made him switch seats 🙂
Ha! Now that is a great shot of both of them being ‘real’ people, civilians so-to-speak. Can totally relate but the real story is what was he thinking? I would have noticed her body language (just look at the expression on her face) and demeanor.
Or, at least that’s my Monday morning QB take on it. Who knows, i might have just slept by my selfie like I’m sure he did that night.
Nothing like a little drama. Who knows. Your take is as good as anyone else’s though.
So soon the Republicans forget and did they ever say anything about these handshakes?
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I’m guessing that the larger driver of her expression was from being bored and sitting uncomfortably. Most of the people around her don’t appear to be having the time of their life either.