In response to Obama’s Disrespectful ‘Latte Salute’ Shocks and Offends:
It’s illuminating how quickly Obama dead-enders made fools of themselves trying to excuse the President for this. Sally Kohn was the first to smash herself in the face with a cream pie by digging up some ancient picture of George Bush struggling to salute while holding a dog and calling it a “giant AHEM” to everyone offended by the Latte Salute:
As you can see from the responses collected by Twitchy, that dodge didn’t last ten minutes, and ended up revealing a lot more about liberals’ lack of appreciation for military culture than it did to excuse Obama’s conduct. For starters, you don’t have to know anything about military protocol to see that holding a live animal is rather different than strolling past the Marines with a styrofoam cup of coffee in your hands.
Also, President Bush is rendering the salute correctly, a detail Kohn apparently couldn’t be bothered to research. He’s using his right hand while managing his burden with the left. It looks a bit goofy because he’s wrestling with a dog and he’s got the dog leash wrapped around his arm, but he’s clearly making a real effort to show proper respect.
Barack Obama, on the other hand, made no such effort… and this on the very day he’s sent American troops into harm’s way, in a None Dare Call It War action he says will last for years. I suspect the people who raced to defend Obama saw only a still photo or two of the incident, rather than watching the video you posted, which makes his lax attitude far more obvious.
Yesterday I would have called this annoying but unsurprising, and hardly out of character. It looks like a lot of people are more upset about it than I anticipated, probably based on the timing, and perhaps as a consequence of his generally plummeting popularity. Halfway through his second term as President, he shouldn’t need to be taught how to handle a moment like this.