First Bush-Obama Meeting: Hard Feelings and Hand Sanitizer

Fox News ^ | 11-08-08 | Bill Sammon

[RepublitarianRoger2]

President Bush and President-elect Barack Obama are probably hoping their meeting Monday goes better than their first get-together, which left a bad taste in the mouths of both men.

Four years ago, Obama and other newly elected members of the Senate were invited to the White House for a breakfast meeting with Bush, who pulled the young Chicagoan aside.

"Obama!" Bush exclaimed, according to Obama's account of the meeting in his second memoir, "The Audacity of Hope." "Come here and meet Laura. Laura, you remember Obama. We saw him on TV during election night. Beautiful family. And that wife of yours -- that's one impressive lady."

The two men shook hands and then, according to Obama, Bush turned to an aide, "who squirted a big dollop of hand sanitizer in the president's hand."

Bush then offered some to Obama, who recalled: "Not wanting to seem unhygienic, I took a squirt."

[KJC1]

So let’s see: President Bush complimented Obama (multiple times) and offered him sound advice. Then Obama didn’t like what Bush said in his speech, and took it PERSONALLY? I think it makes Obama look weird more than anything.

And the hand sanitizer thing is stupid. Lots of people keep the stuff around and use it often; that’s what it was made for, for cryin’ out loud!

[Arthur McGowan]

Barney should really avoid ALL hand gestures when there are cameras around. More captions, anyone?

[VeniVidiVici]

Somehow, I really doubt that the hand sanitizer incident ever happened.

Me too. The President is too gracious a host to do this. This is Osama's/Democrat's way of portraying the President as a stupid bubba. Same MO for the past 8 years.

[mthom]

Class? Like the kind of guy that would be greeted as cordially as Bush greeted him and go on to write about it as some vaguely racist not to mention crypto-facist meeting? Thats class?

[Irene Adler]

Obama had absolutely no business talking about this meeting to the press. Such occasions are generally understood to be private. He is really very, very similar to Clinton in his childishness, hypersensitivity to endless perceived slights, and self-centeredness. Michelle and Hillary are a lot alike too, which is probably why they dislike each other.

[MtnClimber]

I expect the DemocRATS to try to prosecute those they view as enemies. I predict Bush, Lieberman, Rove, ...

[television is just wrong]

they are buttering the other side of the bread. survival.

[fso301]

An old saying in the office was before meeting rivals. Go the the restroom, don’t wash your hands, handle the doorknob and go to the meeting and shake hands.

[Secret Agent Man]

Bush ain’t a moderate. That’s why, they’ve hitched their focking wagon to the idea that repubs need to be RINOs.

[Irene Adler]

Sorry, I missed the context of this meeting. Didn’t see that it had occurred in the past and assumed it took place quite recently.

[Malesherbes]

Agreed. Fox is becoming unwatchable, and by the way, Carl Cameron is permanently on my lizard-list for dumping on Sarah.

[o2bfree]

Fox has been taken over by the little girl wing of TV journalism.

[Future Snake Eater]

Yeah, I’ve only done one event where I shook literally hundreds of hands, and, though I never use hand sanitizer, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some of the stuff!

[Eagles6]

"Barack may be a Solicialist, but he’s got some class."

I assume that you mean socialist. obama sits in a extreme, racist "church" for 20 yrs. and lies about it. Lies about his record on abortion, lies about things that are caught on video tape, wants to destroy the America that we love and you say that he has class?

[nufsed]

Seems like offering some to the other guy was a nice touch. A polite thing to do. A human thing, he didn't have to do. I look at it as generous, thoughtful and considerate. Like, here's what I'm doing, you want to do this also?

These stories are ridiculous. Perhaps we should return to the days of JFK with women running in and out of the WH, hotel visits, and such and not a peep in the papers.

[sport]

Bull Shit!

[Seven plus One]

they are buttering the other side of the bread. survival.

Exactly. The debate boycott by the Party worked. I expect more to come. Lots more.

[mass55th]

"Despite this display of bonhomie, Obama said the president's demeanor turned downright frightening when he laid out his agenda to the freshly minted lawmakers."

"Suddenly it felt as if somebody in a back room had flipped a switch," Obama wrote. "The president's eyes became fixed; his voice took on the agitated, rapid tone of someone neither accustomed to nor welcoming interruption; his easy affability was replaced by an almost messianic certainty. As I watched my mostly Republican Senate colleagues hang on his every word, I was reminded of the dangerous isolation that power can bring, and appreciated the Founders' wisdom in designating a system to keep power in check."

William Ayers has a way with words doesn't he? In reality, this sounds more like a description of the One instead of Bush.

[4Speed]

Nope, it is his Middle Finger that is derisive. He will be Sworn in using his Middle Name, protocol and all that.

[mass55th]

"So what, I shake hands with people everyday and I use hand sanitizer to stop from spreading germs. Like everything else obama has done he is trying to claim racism. And it is manufactured not real. "

I think I recall some hoopla during the early days of the Clinton Administration, where staffers wore gloves when greeting members of the homosexual community to the White House.