Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Did Bush wipe his hand on Clinton's shirt in Haiti?


Watch the video below. At one point, after shaking hands with some Haitians, Bush appears to wipe his hand on Clinton's shirt.

TP: "Bush has a well-known aversion to germs -- and a tendency to use other people's clothing to clean himself off. He infamously used a woman's shirt to wipe off his glasses and reportedly had an aide give him "a big dollop of hand sanitizer" after shaking hands with Barack Obama.

I suppose it's not a big deal, unless there's more to it (like, say, a racial thing), but it's certainly rather odd.

UPDATE: At The Guardian, Richard Adams suggests that the video might be misleading: "The video clip... appears to have been selectively slowed at the point that Bush touches Clinton's shoulder, making his gesture seem worse than it was. In the full-speed BBC version – available here – Bush is seen tapping Clinton on the shoulder twice and then plucking at his sleeve. Clinton is notoriously unpunctual and an enthusiastic glad-hander, whereas Bush is known for keeping to a tight schedule. So it's just as likely that Bush was encouraging Clinton to hurry up."

Yes, perhaps.

No comments:

Post a Comment