Posted on 01/29/2009 10:39:37 AM PST by Free ThinkerNY
Joe Lieberman has felt it. So has Joe the Plumber.
It’s the Obama Touch — the squeeze on the biceps, the pat on the shoulder or the tap on the back that signals the displeasure of the commander in chief. Let others turn on the deep freeze or lose their cool when they’re annoyed. Obama prefers to deal with problems by taking them in hand — literally.
Just ask Vice President Joe Biden, who made a joke about Chief Justice John Roberts flubbing the oath of office last week and immediately felt his boss’s disapproval, in the form of Obama’s fingers on his back.
“[Obama] was castigating him. There’s no other way to put it,” says Joe Navarro, a former FBI special agent specializing in nonverbal communication. “Biden got it immediately,” he adds. “It looked like a little, subtle touch, but you could immediately see that Vice President Biden was contrite after that.”
In Biden’s case, Obama’s touch was itself a message, but in other cases, the Touch serves to underscore a spoken point — as reporters both on and off the campaign trail have learned.
During his visit to the White House press room last week, Obama responded to a Politico reporter’s unwanted question with a verbal rebuke — and a series of shoulder pats so emphatic as to be audible.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
I told you guys this was an alpha male move when he put his hand on that reporters shoulder. He was being a bully to that reporter.
This man has some evil power. People tremble when near him. And I ain’t talkin’ ‘bout Jesus!
If that is how BO does it, he’ll have to stay on Biden like a masseuse.
Absolutely LOL.
I thought putting the MSM in its place was seen as a good thing. Apparently only when Sarah Palin is doing it. If Obama does it, he’s a bully. What a hoot.
He has it as the wallpaper on his cell phone screen!
"Go not quietly..."
Sarah Palin didn’t get physically aggressive to put them in their place.
Hoot indeed.
Putting a hand on a shoulder is now physically agressive? Hoot indeed.
Did you SEE it? Obviously not because it was more than “putting” his hand on his shoulder.
You toucha me, I breaka you face!
Putting a reporter in their place for asking juvenile, personal and obviously tainted questions is one thing. That we are for from anyone. But asking a legitimate question about policy is something else altogether. I am surprised that the obvious logic of that is so hard to see.
Hitler had the same effect on people. Field Marshal Brauchitsch was the last C in C of the Wehrmacht before Hitler assumed the post for himself. Brauchitsch was an energetic commander with a firm hand on operations in Poland and France. He flew from command post to command post to talk personally to commanders in the field and keep the the blitzkrieg moving.
Yet when this extremely brave and talented man faced Hitler in a conference, he wilted every time. Hitler turned him into a quivering mass of jelly. Hitler sacked him after the first year in Russia. The Wehrmacht went downhill from then on.
Did you SEE it? Obviously not because it was more than “putting” his hand on his shoulder.
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Yup. Watched the video at this link. Twice even. Saw nothing even close to what you referred to as ‘physically aggressive’. Can you give me the time code of the video that you suggest demonstrates physical aggression?
I would hate to be on the Secret Service detail that protects the president right now. Sooner or later, he’s going to pull that on someone who’s not going to take it, and then all hell’s going to break loose.
Hitler sacked him after the first year in Russia. The Wehrmacht went downhill from then on.
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You say this like it is a bad thing.
“You say this like it is a bad thing.”
It wasn’t then. It is now.
Another LBJ.
I thought putting the MSM in its place was seen as a good thing. Apparently only when Sarah Palin is doing it. If Obama does it, he’s a bully. What a hoot.
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Go back and watch the video again, I can pretty well guarantee that had the reporter pounded on Obama’s shoulder like that the secret service men would have pounced on him.
(Liberal) Groups target GOP senators on stimulus
The Hill | 2009-0129 | Reid Wilson
Posted on 01/29/2009 9:52:04 AM PST by davidlachnicht
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2174295/posts
GOP defies Obama overtures (Obama starts to play hardball)
Politico | January 29, 2009 | Mike Allen & Jonathan Martin
Posted on 01/29/2009 8:59:56 AM PST by St. Louis Conservative
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2174256/posts
Go back and watch the video again, I can pretty well guarantee that had the reporter pounded on Obama’s shoulder like that the secret service men would have pounced on him.
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Help me out here. Are you talking the first scene of the video? What is the time code on the video of the ‘pounding’, I just don’t see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUWBbl6YkkE
This is the video and what I refer to starts at around 3.24.
Maybe I am too touchy but down South a lot of people don’t consider that a friendly pat, it looks more like trying to dominate someone and treat them as an inferior. I just don’t like Obama’s entire demeanor here, it is the kind of thing that instantly makes me want to punch someone in the gut. I doubt that he would act that way if he were just a private citizen in that crowd. Try acting that way around this area and sooner or later you will get a, “Keep your hands off me”, or worse. I consider it very bad behaviour for a president.
Do you still refer to what happened at 3:24 on that video as a ‘pounding’?
You may not like his behavior, but a pounding? That’s just silly.
I will allow that pounding may be too strong a word if you will allow that the behaviour is inappropriate. I will also repeat my advice not to go around doing that sort of thing down South, some people won’t put up with it.
The touchiest feeliest people I know are southerners. Could it be that having an intense dislike for the man from the gitgo is coloring your perceptions?
I’m a touchy feely guy myself, having been involved in corporate education for the last 6 or 7 thousand years.
In conversations where a lot of stuff is going on, I will routinely put my hand on the arm or shoulder of the person I am speaking to, in order to reinforce that I am speaking to them. I have never once had someone suggest that it was condescending or aggressive. Had one person take me to task for touching a female that way in the corporate environment (interestingly, not the person I touched).
There are people in every corner of this country who would prefer not to be touched. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that it is a ‘southern’ thing. It’s a people thing.
In conversations where a lot of stuff is going on, I will routinely put my hand on the arm or shoulder of the person I am speaking to,
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I will buy that but in the video you can actually hear the sound of Obamas hand as he raises it and brings it down again on the man’s shoulder and he does it more than once. You can refer to it as if it is simply touching but it is more than touching. It is not a simple friendly pat at all.
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