Obama Uses Traditional 'Shaka' Greeting in Hawaii

reuters ^ | December 28, 2008

[Free ThinkerNY]

KAILUA, HI - Barack Obama may be the first U.S. president who can successfully pull off the shaka, a Hawaiian greeting Hawaiians say has various meanings, from “hang loose” and “cool” to “thanks.”

The hand gesture, also a common greeting in surfer culture, consists of curling the three middle fingers and extending the thumb and little finger.

The president-elect, looking uber-cool with his White Sox baseball cap on backwards, flipped the shaka to a crowd of about 30 people as he left a gym on a Marine Corps base on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where he is vacationing.

[Free ThinkerNY]

[rdl6989]

He’s trying hard to make us think he’s Hawaiian.

[TheZMan]

Nobody gives a !@#$.

[RichInOC]

So did anybody split the difference back at him?

[bergmeid]

the gym, the gym, God help us all, the world is on fire and that barfbag is in the gym again.

[NordP]

Thank you for that post....great belly laugh. Nicely done.

[lacrew]

I wonder what that sign means in Kenya.....or in Compton.

[FlingWingFlyer]

This is news? Any pinhead can do this “successfully.”

[Cementjungle]

The president-elect, looking uber-cool with his White Sox baseball cap on backwards

Oh brother.

[RegulatorCountry]

So many puns. Shaka Con? Shaka Con?

The media are trying so hard, to paint this man as anything other than the skinny, awkward geek with man boobs that he actually is.

[rdl6989]

Lol.

[Dallas59]

Oh brother....

[exist]

Hahaha these stories are absurd. Ooohhhh he works out sooo much. Oooh Hawaiian greeting.

[ladyvet]

The president-elect, looking uber-cool with his White Sox baseball cap on backwards...

Uber-assinine is more like it.

[Canedawg]

“looking uber-cool with is...cap on backwards”

More ballwashing by Rooters.

He looked like a dopey, wannabe thug.

[Aria]

I swear some female British writer called him a “sex god”.

What do they see that I don’t?

[advance_copy]

This Texan's "hook 'em horns" is about a million times cooler:

[ferri]

he is just so, like uber cool isn’t he? totally. (that sure doesn’t translate into type does it? LOL)

[hiho hiho]

[Sundog]

[4rcane]

didn’t the media implied something sinister when Bush did the same hand sign many years ago?

[hiho hiho]

[eXe]

haha I was thinking “Barak-a-con Barak-a-con!”

[Military family member]

Isn’t it similar to the American sign language sign for “I Love You?”

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Great, so we’ve gone from wanting our Presidents to be competent, to wanting them to be “cool”.

Wake me up after Great Depression II is over.

[brytlea]

I think “Hook ‘em Horns” is way cooler.

[brytlea]

Gangbanger in Chief.....

[rfreedom4u]

Maybe instead of trying to look “uber cool” he should try to look presidential. I’m afraid we will experience a surge in “ghetto style” dress and manner from a lot of people.

God help us!

[DBrow]

I went to a Metallica concert and they did the same thing.

As for the gym stuff, W was criticized for “obsessively working out”, The 0ne is praised for the same trait.

[BnBlFlag]

Damn! I didn’t know Arafat went to UT!

[BlazingArizona]

Isn’t it similar to the American sign language sign for “I Love You?”

You mean the "state bird of New York"?

[Cheetahcat]

The reason for that is the old king was missing three fingers LMAO and every fool since has copied it.

[ferri]

oh yeah! i think they were saying something about him making a satanic sign. #$%^&*

[LostInBayport]

"Uber cool". He looks like a slob. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but he's just been elected President of the United States. Would an attempt at class be too much effort out of respect for the office?

But that's not what this is about. It is all about distraction, Madison Avenue/American Idol style. The media focus on his pecs (if you can call those pecs), his backward baseball cap and slang gestures, hoping that the fact that his administration has been marred by scandal before the swearing-in will be forgotten by An Image of Cool. Yeah, that will deflect the fact that he has no clue how to handle a large economic crisis or the escalating tension in the Middle East.

Shaka-Zulu (or whatever it is), indeed.

[Joe 6-pack]

I just want to take this opportunity to present my deepest apologies to William Jefferson Clinton. For eight years, I personally attacked and bad-mouthed him to my friends and acquaintances as the most juvenile, adolescent, arrogant POS to ever be elected to the presidency.

I am now sorry for having done so, and wish to formally and sincerely tell him I was wrong.

[RegulatorCountry]

The MSM is so vested in this. Vapid, MTV stereotypes are about all they have to report that is positive, and report they do, breathlessly.

We’ll never hear from them that Obama got an unenthusiastic, if polite, welcome at that military base.

[ReignOfError]

The ASL sign has the thumb and index finger perpendicular to each other and the pinky parallel to the index finger. It’s a combination of the manual alphabet signs for “I” (pinky extended), “L” (thumb and forefinger) and “Y” (thumb and pinky, like the “shaka”).

[warsaw44]

The American Idol president.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Headline?

Hollywood announces fourth prime time show featuring Obama
Learn A Language With The President
New show joins Reality West Wing, Working Out With Obama, and Obama Goes One-On-One With NBA

[dfwgator]

And here I was thinking Bush was a Black Sabbath fan.

[chicagolady]

BOOM SHAKA LAKA BROTHER!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJc6uczdhE0

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Thank you.

Headline?

Hollywood announces fifth prime time show featuring Obama
Obama: The American Idol
New show joins Reality West Wing, Working Out With Obama, Obama Goes One-On-One With NBA, and Learn A Language With The President

[BenLurkin]

F.U.B.O.

[freekitty]

Pardon me; but isn’t that “Hook em Horns”?

[Danae]

I WILL GIVE HIM ONE FINGER

[Danae]

Kailua, damn that tard is in MY home town. That Bastard. He can get the F. out.

[sten]

The president-elect, looking uber-cool with his White Sox baseball cap on backwards

seriously? wtf?! they aren't covering some mtv video jock. he's supposed to be lining up for the POTUS.

demonstrating that you cannot properly operate a hat without instructions, is not a good sign

[SierraWasp]

"The president-elect, looking uber-cool with his White Sox baseball cap on backwards"

Next, we'll see our CIC wearing baggy pants barely hangin on his skinnyast differential! Just wait!! It's coming!!!

But hey! He's the first black Bill Clinton!!!

[sten]

my suggestion that i am passing along to all right-wingers...

in the upcoming 4 years, do NOTHING to help the left score any victories. does it mean it might hurt the US? yup. just like what the left did to bring the housing market down and gas prices up.

the left depends on the right to do what’s good for the country, regardless of party. it’s time we turn the tables. while their guy is in, it should be nonstop, in-your-face, screw-you mindset... just like they have done to GW since day one.

[Salamander]

Shaka Zulu?