Obama and Michelle FistBumped or Was that "Bested?"

Cover credit: The New Yorker


Rev. Lainie Dowell

O no she DID n't!

Well, I told myself I was going to stay out of this one, but I still have not heard my personal best question asked (and answered).

Barack Obama and his love-of-his-life wife taught the world how to fistbump on the national stage at a national event of a momentous occasion and now they want to take it back? Now I've heard everything! If they had constrained themselves with all those flashing camera lights going, perhaps this would have been one photo op that could have been missed because it never would have been. Has anybody checked to see if this one was also put up on their Fight the Smears site? And just what could their cover (no pun intended) be this time?

Perhaps they need to sit down and study just one page out of President George W. Bush's notebook, which no doubt, was his Bible. For eight long years, the Democrats have pounced on him, his wife, his cabinet, his policies, and his very existence. And, whether it was in the White House or on his Texas ranchero, they worked hard to not give him any peace. They called him all kinds of names, made numerous wildly false accusations against him, and they even tried to impreach him and his Vice President Dick Cheney, for heaven's sake!

And, as if that wasn't enough, Barack Obama came on the national scene (out of time) adding to all of their other undiplomatic screeching about the "President's failed Iraqi-Afghanistan Bush policies." Instead of helping to boost him up, they have tried every trick in the book to drag him down and under and to try to hold him in place. Now, I wonder how so many of them came to be in the United States Congress and the Senate? Well. They bundled themselves up in the right-wing, conservative faith but kept their unrighteous selves uncovered long enough to promise the American citizens that, if they were elected, they would "End This WAR and BRING our troops back HOME!" They knew what would resonate best with the voters. And that time it worked. The only thing about that tact they used is that it cannot last, if it is false, fake, and full of trickery used to deceive. And it did not last. They could not keep their promise and they rattled their own constituents' cages.

One incoming Senate freshman from Virginia (Sen. Jim Webb), was so bold that he refused to shake the President's hand at a welcoming reception for them and he didn't even know enough not to brag on it (at least not in public, anyhow). And, another -- an incoming freshman in the House of Representatives (Rep. Keith Ellison), came in like gang busters telling the nation before he even got there that he was absolutely refusing to place his hand on the Bible during the swearing in. He said he was going to bring in his Qur'an, as the first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress (and it didn't matter to him how many protested against it). Funny thing, though, he was entering with all this bluster preceding him yet he didn't know enough to know that their swearing-in ceremony did not use Bibles.

The incoming Congressmen and Congresswomen and Senators usually acquired a Bible to have their pictures taken individually following the swearing in portion of the ceremony so they could have something for their constituents to see.

Despite all of that which was done to the sitting President in a time of war, and so much more that I haven't even the time, room, or the inclination to cite them all, anybody would be hardpressed to find many reports of protests about such treatment, if any at all, coming from the President or his family. On one occasion, a reporter came right out and asked the President how he felt about such treatment towards him. His response was informative and the Democrats, in particular, need to take a memo, put it in the interdepartmental mail envelope, and send it on its way throughout their corridors.

Take a note. President Bush responded with a smile and told the reporter that was to be expected in an election year and that he would rather have those remarks directed towards him than towards our candidates, because he could handle it. And he said he had work to do and couldn't let "that" bother him. President Bush even said he did not intend to be a lame duck President (send another memo). Now, let me tell you, that was a REAL "Yes-I-Can" moment (take a hint somebody).

Now for the parties of the first part who have problems with a little truth told in a humorous way. My question about that is -- Which part of that photo was not true?

As I said, the entire nation saw that fistbump (oh that's what its called).

Look at the expression on her face. Did she not look self-satisfied that night?

Did he not oblige her by meeting her fist with his fist in the air (towards hers)?

Can we not envision her hair poofed up in an Afro (back in the day)? (mine was) And his hair certainly was, too!

Do we not know that his longtime friend, Bill Ayers, burned the U.S. flag?

Did Obama not put himself into that Arabic garb complete with headdress?

Now I just have to stop the clock when it comes to that longgun swinging from her shoulder.

And, about that picture of the other "O" bin Ladin hanging over that mantlepiece? No comment (can't talk about what I don't know about).

One great lesson out of all of this is "What goes around comes around." And the worst part about that is, when it does, it is 100% worse.