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April 18, 2008

Did Obama make an Obscene Gesture referencing Hillary?

Rick Moran
It's all over the internet this morning - left and right weighing in on a YouTube video of a Barack Obama speech to supporters in North Carolina. It's one of those political blow ups that is either too trivial or too revealing of the true nature of a candidate.

Question: Did Barack Obama make an obscene gesture when mentioning Hillary Clinton being "in her element" playing what he called "gotcha games?"

Here's the YouTube video:
 
 


Here's a partial transcript courtesy of Mark Silva of The Swamp 

Sen. Barack Obama was on the stump today in Raleigh, N.C., the day after his debate in Philadelphia with Sen. Hillary Clinton. Have a look at his body language when he spoke of the sort of debate it was -- a "gotcha'' fest -- and about Clinton being "in her element.''

"Last night, Sen. Clinton and I had our 21st debate of the year,'' Obama said today. "Last night, I think we set a new record, because it took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people.

"I don't blame Washington for this, because that's just how Washington is,'' he said. "They like stirring up controversy. They like playing gotcha games... .. and I would say Sen. Clinton was in her element.''

And that's the part of the videotape, courtesy of Fox News, where viewers need to pay some attention to the hand that Obama raised to his face, and the finger with which he scratched it.
Note the reaction of the crowd to Obama's gesture. They appeared to know exactly what the candidate was doing and approved.

Obama is spinning his halting performance in the debate as the fault of "Washington" or the press. That's because they didn't ask the questions he wanted to answer - a curious complaint but one that his supporters are buying willingly.

Not to worry, Barack. I'm sure the Republicans will bring up everything ABC was smart enough to ask you during the general election campaign. Then you will be able to abandon the pretense that you are a gentleman and flip the bird to John McCain all you wish.

Update -- a reader notes:

This may be a better video.

If it the "scratch" was just a coincidence, why did the audience go wild when he did it?  The proof is in the audience's reaction, more visible in this clip than in the other one.

His finger goes up at 1:24 and immediately the audience reacts, laughing and clapping, clearly reacting to the finger (he's not speaking at that point).  In fact, ten seconds later at 1:34 we see a woman who had missed it told by her friend what had happened and she has a good laugh too.
 
I think it's clear that his audience took it to mean F-U, Hillary.  Isn't that a pretty good indication it happened?

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