Obama's insulting gestures...

youtube clip: Obama Gives McCain the Middle Finger?

youtube clip: Obama Gives Hillary The Finger?

youtube clip: Obama's "Pig/Lipstick" Smear On Palin

Obama's gestures

Paul Rahe is the learned professor of history at Hillsdale College and author of the three-volume study Republics Ancient and Modern. Professor Rahe's Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect has just been published. If any scholarly study in the history of political thought was ever timely, Soft Despotism is it. Mark Steyn freely draws on Professor Rahe's new book in the lead article featured in the current issue of the New Criterion.

Professor Rahe has promised us a column for Power Line readers on his new book when he gets access to a library. In the meantime, he has forwarded us his thoughts on the photograph of President Obama (above) that was posted on the Drudge Report yesterday:

On Tuesday, the White House released a photograph of President Obama nonchalantly leaning back in his chair with his feet on the desk, the soles of his shoes clearly visible--as he spoke on the telephone with Benyamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel. Some in the Israeli press have interpreted the release of the photograph as an expression of contempt, intended for Arab consumption, inspired by the hurling of a shoe at President Bush in Baghdad some months back.

Far-fetched thoough these fears might seem, I suspect that these Israelis are not being hypersensitive. Barack Obama has a history of belittling his adversaries in just such a fashion. In April 2008, he was caught on tape during a debate with Hillary Clinton, rubbing his hand across the right side of his face and extending his middle finger in an obscene gesture that many in the audience could see it but she could not, and when this provoked laughter on the part of his supporters he responded with a knowing smile.

Later, after accepting his party's nomination, he did precisely the same thing during a debate with John McCain; and, after Sarah Palin remarked at the Republican National Convention that the only difference between a pit bull and a soccer mom was lipstick, he observed at a rally that a pig with lipstick is still a pig. Again, many in the audience caught the dig and they, too, were rewarded with a knowing smile.

Obama is, in fact, a master of the insulting gesture. There is no other construction that one can put on his conduct towards Gordon Brown when the British prime minister paid him a visit shortly after his inauguration. First, in an ostentatious manner, he returned to the British embassy a bust of Winston Churchill that had been loaned to his predecessor. Then, when Brown presented him with a pen made from timber used in a British ship once involved in putting down the slave trade, he gave him in return a stack of movies on DVD which could not be played on machines sold in Europe.

Were Obama a yokel, one might be able to explain this away. But a yokel he is not, and there are State Department protocol officers who are highly sensitive to the proprieties. It is no accident that, at about the same time, the White House press secretary intimated in the presence of members of the British press that there was no special relationship between the United States and Great Britain. Obama's gesture was a calculated insult--meant to be understood only by those to whom it was directed.

If we are to comprehend what is going on, we must pay close attention not only to what Obama says but to what he conveys in other ways. His tone is nearly always moderate but what he hints at and what he intimates by way of body language often convey the opposite. Witness his warm embrace of Hugo Chavez. Behind the thin veneer of politeness, there is, I suspect, something ugly lurking. In the first of the autobiographies that he claims to have written, Barack Obama frequently speaks of himself as being in the grips of rage. We would do well to take him at his word. If we are to stop him from doing great damage to this country and to our friends and allies, we must take every opportunity that comes our way to unmask the man.

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Paul Rahe: Obama's gestures, part 2

Professor Paul Rahe follows up on his post "Obama's gestures." Professor Rahe writes:

Just under three weeks ago, I wrote a Power Line post drawing attention to a photograph released by the White House, showing President Obama nonchalantly leaning back in his chair with his feet on the desk, the soles of his shoes clearly visible while speaking on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In that post, I noted that some in the Israeli press interpreted the release of the photograph as an expression of contempt intended for Arab consumption, inspired by the hurling of a shoe at President Bush in Baghdad some months back. I listed a number of occasions on which Barack Obama demonstrated his mastery of the insulting gesture,

The White House has released a series of photographs in which, as the Drudge Report puts it, Obama directed "the evil eye" at various foreign leaders who visited him. Included on the list were German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

I take this, therefore, as an occasion for repeating what I wrote on that earlier occasion: "If we are to comprehend what is going on, we must pay close attention not only to what Obama says but to what he conveys in other ways. His tone is nearly always moderate but what he hints at and what he intimates by way of body language often convey the opposite. Witness his warm embrace of Hugo Chavez. Behind the thin veneer of politeness, there is, I suspect, something ugly lurking. In the first of the autobiographies that he claims to have written, Barack Obama frequently speaks of himself as being in the grips of rage. We would do well to take him at his word."

To this, let me add the obvious: President Obama communicated in a similar fashion his contempt for those in Iran who long for democracy by quickly expressing his confidence in the Islamic Republic's leadership in the wake of the massive demonstrations against the ostentatious ballot-box stuffing that took place in that country's recent presidential election. It was only when John McCain's eloquent denunciation of the murder of Neda Agha-Soltan evoked a strong public response within the United States that, in a hastily organized press conference, President Obama deigned to criticize Mahmoud Imadinnerjacket and his cronies.

As others have noted on this site, our president has not been at all reluctant to align himself with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro in denouncing those in Honduras who have mounted resistance to the unconstitutional attempt of President Mel Zalaya to stage a referendum aimed at eliminating the constitutional provision preventing this Chavez protégé from being re-elected for an indefinite number of terms.

President Obama does not have to announce whose side he is on. He can convey by gestures that he is inclined to help America's enemies and to harm our friends, and he has done so repeatedly with consummate skill. For a considerable time, our fellow citizens may remain oblivious to what is going on. Abroad, however, where the politically alert are closely attentive to the attitudes of America's presidents, people already know.

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