Another first for Bush.
You know you’ve done a bang up job as POTUS when, in your final days in office, a journalist is willing to go to prison for chucking his shoes at you during a press conference. I’m still looking into this, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time someone has removed their shoes and thrown them at a U.S. President. Rock stars have women throwing their panties on stage. Bush? He has people throwing their shoes at his head.
In the middle of the news conference with Mr Maliki, Iraqi television journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi stood up and shouted “this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog,” before hurling a shoe at Mr Bush which narrowly missed him.
Showing the soles of shoes to someone is a sign of contempt in Arab culture.
Did you see how fast Bush ducked that first throw? I’m guessing he gets a lot of practice at home with Laura.
36 days and counting.
–Gordy
I almost posted this myself. My favorite thing about this? The Secret Service must really be phoning it in at this point. I mean, wouldn’t you hope that, if a would-be assassin managed to squeeze off one shot, the Secret Service guys would jump in front of the pres and/or tackle him to the ground before the shooter could fire shot #2? And yet this guy was able to throw not one, but BOTH shoes, right at Bush’s head. Correct me if I’m wrong, but shoes thrown by an Iraqi travel at a slower rate than bullets from a gun, right? Awseome. You know the rest of that journalist’s day had to suck, but he had one big moment of being a hero to a lot of people around the world.