Barack Obama Did Not Give The Finger To Anyone

Published April 18, 2008 in Barack Obama and Newsweek.

They won’t believe it (and by “they” I mean the disgraceful Andrew Malcolm in the LA Times who has added oil to this right-wing fire) but Liz has the info for your lying eyes.

But then, Puff Daddy can tell you that the LA Times doesn’t exactly have such a great record on truth-telling nowadays.

>> MSNBC, FoxNews.com flip out over purported “flip-off”

15 Responses to “Barack Obama Did Not Give The Finger To Anyone”

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1 Quaker in a Basement
Apr 18th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

You have to give the right-wing credit for a finely tuned sense of the ironic. He made the gesture while complaining about trivial bullshit dominating the campaign debate!!
2 Matthew G. Saroff
Apr 18th, 2008 at 3:28 pm

You are missing the meta.

It’s that everyone is going batshit insane over this election.
3 Zython
Apr 18th, 2008 at 3:40 pm

But when a Republican gives the finger, not an eyebrow is raised. How curious.
4 Sean D. Martin
Apr 18th, 2008 at 4:08 pm

That’s because Bush wasn’t giving anyone the finger. He was just picking his nose and missed.

Obama, on the other hand, “clearly” “intentionally” “flipped Clinton off” and it can “obviously” be seen that “knew EXACTLY what he was doing”.

At least, that’s what I’m seeing on the blog comments. So it must be true.
5 jerry
Apr 18th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

Getting back to a discussion from several weeks ago, this is precisely why I don’t believe in “dogwhistles”.

I think he was scratching his face, something he had been doing earlier with his pinky. I think it is arguable to the dogwhistlers that the proof he was flipping the bird is in the reaction of the attendees.

Detecting dogwhistles is a stupid game for everyone to be playing.

On the other hand, I don’t know who Liz is, and I don’t know what her problem is, but I think her statements on this “event” are the racist ones, not Obamas, Clintons, or the pundits.

A brother cannot have class at all. That’s basically what these people are saying. How can he take it and throw it back at them with the class, intelligence and snark they only attribute to their own whiteness? How can this negro be a thug without being a nigger? How can he brush it off and still look damn fucking good doing it.

Their racist little minds just don’t get it.

That’s just stupid race card playing that has nothing to do with anything the LA Times or the Chicago Tribune wrote.
6 Quaker in a Basement
Apr 18th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

By qinab at 2008-04-18
7 GOPmurderedconscience
Apr 18th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

I too believe that Obama wasn’ showing the finger, unless the story with 2 different videos is true.

But this is what the Democratic primary has become. For a long time, Hillary was on the receiving end of this type treatment, but to my bitter disappointment, many progressives were cheering as long as this type of silliness was going only to Hillary Clinton. I hope they now see how destructive this could be.

I wish people on our side have listened to Bob Somerby and to Eric Boehlert from the beginning.
8 Quaker in a Basement
Apr 18th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

Isn’t it about time for the Dem campaigns to bypass the networks altogether?

Why shouldn’t the Obama staff assemble a panel of progressive bloggers (including our own host!), tape a Q-and-A session and post it up on the web?

Maybe then we wouldn’t have to suffer through “Do you believe in the flag?” nonsense.
9 anotherbozo
Apr 18th, 2008 at 4:56 pm

God help me if this “finger” allegation makes the evening news shows. I can’t afford to put a foot through my TV.
10 Duros62
Apr 18th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

Open message to the Media Overlords;

Stop it. Just stop it, all of you.

Oh, did anyone happen to notice that the President approves of torture and admitted it to ABC earlier this week? No? Anybody?

Too busy checking to make sure the Obamas recycle. Enough. Or too much.
11 Plantsmantx
Apr 18th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

I almost want to see this one turn into a full-fledged “gate”. It’s the best illustration yet of how deranged some people can become.
12 JLW
Apr 18th, 2008 at 5:57 pm

In the video in the post just before this one Barack is scratching his forehead in the same way. This is obviously a habitual gesture. Only in the “silly season” would this even be noticed.
13 Sean D. Martin
Apr 18th, 2008 at 6:51 pm

anotherbozo: “God help me if this “finger” allegation makes the evening news shows. I can’t afford to put a foot through my TV.

Well THERE’S yer problem. You watch the evening news.
14 merl
Apr 19th, 2008 at 11:16 am

not that I care but he sure as hell flipped someone off.
15 Sean D. Martin
Apr 19th, 2008 at 12:23 pm

merl: not that I care but he sure as hell flipped someone off.

Have you seen more of the tape from that speech? He touches his cheek a dozen times or so. Yet the focus is on this one particular time.

This is like Wright. The man has given by some estimates over 3000 hours of sermons, yet all anyone ever sees are 30 seconds. That’s like judging your entire life based upon less than one particular hour.

Obama touched his cheek repeatedly, sometimes with one finger, sometimes with more. You’re seeing what you want to see because to want a reason to dislike him and you’re too dishonest or lazy to come up with something legitimate.