Nothing more than a creepy coincidence, of course, but the famous Obama hand salute does have an interesting precursor. The O-slaute:
Turns out this picture comes from the
German Propaganda Archive. Those hands belong to Der Führer, and are captioned by the Archive: "The hands of the Führer organize his speech. This picture captures Hitler's hands as he speaks of the unity of the National Socialist and socialist ideas."
Imagine if a conservative candidate were using a hand sign from the National
Socialists!
