During a press conference in Baghdad on Sunday, an angry journalist from the room threw 2 shoes at President Bush in defiance of his actions in the region. Both shoes flew past Bush’s head and the journalist was immediately taken out of the room. Bush was unhurt by the incident and even joked that the shoe was a size 10.
In Iraqi culture, it is said that throwing a shoe is the utmost sign of disrespect.
Bush’s trip was to celebrate the conclusion of the security pact, called the Strategic Framework Agreement and the Status of Forces Agreement, the White House said.
The pact will replace a U.N. mandate for the U.S. presence in Iraq that expires at the end of this year. The agreement, reached after months of negotiations, sets June 30, 2009, as the deadline for U.S. combat troops to withdraw from all Iraqi cities and towns. The date for all U.S. troops to leave Iraq is December 31, 2011.
Below is the raw video footage from CBS News. It shows Bush’s response to questions about the shoe and what it means to him.
Quite the contrary, actually. President Bush indeed shook hands with everybody that day (twice in fact!) and didn’t find it necessary to re-greet each dignitary as they went up on stage for a photo. The reason why everybody else is shaking hands in the video is because they had not greeted each other yet that day.
President Bush is just way ahead of the rest of them when it comes to meet and greets. That’s all.
At the recent G20 Summit, the economic leaders around the world gathered for a photo and as the leaders passed each other on stage, they all shook hands and greeted each other. George W. Bush was the only exception, walking by solemnly with his head down and not making much eye contact with the other leaders.
CNN anchor Rick Sanchez described the situation like a high school class where George Bush would be the unpopular kid with the cooties. It’s both funny and sad to watch. [via]
As you can imagine, the event was a historic one because it was Barack Obama’s first visit ever to the White House and only the second time that the two have met (but the first time as President and President-elect).
Listen to those cameras click away in the background. At that rate, I don’t know why they don’t just film the news broadcast in HD and take stills away from the video.