Reading The Pictures: Bush Gets Bad Rap In CNN's Supposed G-20 Handshake Incident

If you know this column at all, I'm sure you appreciate how I never pass up an opportunity to bash Bush for crippling America's standing with the rest of the world. That said, however, I would never do it at the expense of misinterpreting either still images or video.

For that reason, I've got to object with the take on Bush authored the other day by CNN's Rick Sanchez.

Playing a brief clip of "W" and world leaders coming out on stage for the official group photograph of the G-20 Summit last weekend, Sanchez interpreted the scene as Bush being ignored by the other leaders and then sulking about it. Said Sanchez, Bush looked like "the most unpopular kid in high school that nobody liked."

Unfortunately, sites all over the progressive blogosphere ran with the video, with much the same interpretation.

Using this first and more extended C-SPAN segment, let me explain what was really going on.

The first reason Bush wasn't shaking hands was because Dubya -- who is nothing if not intensely diligent in conforming to the prescriptions of a photo op -- was looking (pretty conspicuously) for his mark on the floor. Watch him even seem to count them before finding his.

Another reason the CNN clip is misleading is because the leaders on the upper riser have already found their positions and there is not a lot of context to judge how quickly the leaders filling the first row needed to find theirs. With the benefit of this earlier footage, you can also observe how several other leaders, while entering the stage, were actually exhibiting the same halting gait and staring at the ground that Sanchez called Bush out for.

In particular, check out Prime Minister Singh of India and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi. Besides how deliberately he takes the step and searches out his mark, notice how Burlusconi then makes a point of showing (I believe it's) European Union President Jose Manuel Barroso of Portugal where his mark is.

This still doesn't fully explain, however, why the first-row leaders entering and falling into position behind Bush manage to greet some second row counterparts when 43 doesn't. That brings up the other reason GWB wasn't looking to pump hands (in contrast to Brazil's Lula, with the beard, and several of the others right behind him).

It's because "W" also had a job to do (and, given Bush, work is  always hard).  As the host, Bush was in charge of herding the crowd and getting everyone situated. You don't get that at all from the CNN segment or the first C-SPAN clip, but it's pretty obvious in this second C-SPAN segment which picks up immediately after the group photo is over.

In this segment, you can see Bush -- again, not in chummy-mode -- preoccupied with directing the throng off stage and out of the room. Approaching the end of the clip, in fact (at a point Sanchez might pause to wonder why Bush wasn't chatting up Nicholas Sarkozy), you suddenly see 43, the stage manager, begin to communicate with someone off stage, most likely about logistics. (It's actually funny, in fact, because GDub responds to the communication by having a little hissy fit, turning in the other direction and looking peeved, the whole host business possibly affecting his mood.)

Studying the weekend's pictures, in fact, the only summit-related social disconnect I could find involving Bush had to do with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Rudd caused an uproar back home a month earlier for relating to domestic press how Bush, in a phone call, didn't know what the G-20 was. From other angles, it's almost impossible to tell, but the Reuters shot run with this Herald Sun article conveys how icy Bush was toward Rudd when he first arrived at the White House for the conference. (Not the kind of welcome, for example, that the Saudi King got.)

On one hand, maybe it seems a bit much going to these lengths over what did or didn't happen in the span of a few seconds. On the other hand, however, given how traditional, independent and also citizen media can draw grand and definitive conclusions from a single photo or a visual snippet, it's important to get it right. The fact the incompetent and thin-skinned Bush is not well liked by the world's leaders is easy to understand. On the other hand, these people are far too well trained to act out so blatantly the way CNN sets it up.

For more visual politics, visit BAGnewsNotes.com (and BAGnewsNotes @Twitter).

(video: C-SPAN from interview with Krishna Guha, Financial Times, Chief U.S. Economics Correspondent. November 16, 2008)

Follow Michael Shaw on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bagnewsnotes

Comments

[NotMcCain]

Of all the world leaders walking in, OURS was the only one who couldn't walk and shake hands at the same time?

What about when he looks up and exchanges nods with one of them (but only one)?

Then there was his strange demeanor (the deep breaths and odd facial expressions and abrupt somewhat hostile, "Good- Bye!"

I think he got an earful from the other G-20. and was p*ssed, Bush-style. The "gotta walk and host" explanation doesn't work for me.

Most dislliked man in the room? Yeah, that works just fine.

[PatA]

IF Bush had shaken hands with the those leaders before...w­hy were they "re-shaking" one another's hands. That dog won't hunt here in Texas.
Let's try the tack that he is so disliked by world leaders that he knew no one was going to greet him
on camera!
How does that one work for you?

[RobChattaTN]

"Bush was in charge of herding the crowd"

nice try.

he may have been the host,
but as Prez of the most powerful nation on the world
he does NOT play stage manager!

if u are in a line and walking over to form the same line a few feet away:
how hard is that???
u simply line up next to the person before u!
if he's looking for a spot on the floor,
i say its a convenient diversion from looking at the others there
who are mostly having a very nice time greeting each other.

sorry, don't buy: "Bush was in charge of herding the crowd"

[ESerafina42]

I didn't think this was as big a deal as everyone made out, but what idiot would put HIM in charge of "herding the crowd"? He can't even find the door for himself, as he once memorably showed us/

[rsaillant1]

Oh, now I get it...it's protocol, the protocol of the handshake as it relates
to the acknowedgement of the existence of a previous handshake. To shake
or not to shake.

Howcum' GWB has a handle on all this 18th century, European manners of court, when
he hasn't a clue about domestic or world affairs. Doesn't know right from wrong, up from
down, good from evil.

I sure hope he knows where the exit is and uses it soon.

[pointyheadprodigy]

The way that Bushco punked (and is punking still) his nation and world in Iraq and at home seems to make this whole conversation moot.

[FiveFortyOne]

There is an explanation for Bush's reaction at the end of the last video. He'd just been told another world leader had just arrived and they would all have to take the photo all over again. His reaction was one most of us would have had, I think.

By using the same "what would an average human do" logic, I think he was exaggeratedly looking for his spot to spare him and the others the discomfort of his just staring at them with nothing to say or do. Again it's something most of us would have done I think.

[trailblazer]

I don't listen to anything Rick Sanchez has to say - he's an idiot and I have no idea why CNN employs him. Is he related to somebody?

I would love for someone to do a clip of of stupid questions posed to guests by Sanchez - they are legion.

[HeresHoping]

His childish little fit at the end isn't liberal spin. Less than 60 days to go...

[HotLeper]

CNN already corrected themselves by later pointing out that the reason he was not shaking hands is because he had just shaken everyone's hand not once but twice just before the photo shoot. The rest of the leaders had not gotten a chance to shake each others hands before the photo shoot.

[Freedoms Friend]

"As the host, Bush was in charge of herding the crowd and getting everyone situated."

If that were true he would not be looking for his mark it would be the only space left, I do not buy your guesswork

[afgail]

Shaw is too generoous in his interpretation. Everyone else was able to find their mark and still shake hands.

[haramagoti]

The point should be that CNN has a lot more pressing stories to cover globally and nationally than choosing to perpetuate hyperbolic innuendo. What an extreme waste of anyone's time.

[Mabo]

Once again, the cartoon Bush created by the liberals wins again. No explanation, even by someone who goes out of his way to bash Bush, will sway those that don't care about the truth (just their version of the "truth"). It is so obvious by the comments left here that any real explanation is lost on you liberals. Very funny to see you all in lockstep with each other and the liberal textbook on how Bush is to be viewed.

[Catfish1968]

no one is in "lockstep" with each other on this. Also, not everyone is a liberal here, but nice try anyway.

[tedeger]

Please define "Liberal." I have considered myself a Social Liberal, an Economic Conservative,, and a religious Moderate for at least seventy years. I was against Bush before he ran for Governor of Texas. I consider him to be by far the worst thing that ever happened to this Nation. I most sincerely hope he is brought to trial at the Hague for his manifold crimes against Humanity. As for you trolls who infest this Post, PLEASE tell me ONE good thing this man has done! It is a shame to leave office with a 100% negative record.

[Durango]

Liberal means FREEDOM.

As in LIBERATE.

We did not CONSERVITATE Europe in 1945.

[lola85]

"I was against Bush before he ran for Governor of Texas. I consider him to be by far the worst thing that ever happened to this Nation. I most sincerely hope he is brought to trial at the Hague for his manifold crimes against Humanity. As for you trolls who infest this Post, PLEASE tell me ONE good thing this man has done!"

WELL SAID tedeger!!!! I too will never understand the continued support and defense of Bush or Cheney. I find it bizarre and disconnected to say the least.

[BeltwayInsider]

Lockstep? Liberals?

It's the Republicans in Congress who consistently vote in "Lockstep", as they are incapable of independent thought. "Lockstep" is a fascist concept; something completely alien to liberals. Liberals, in general, are free thinking individuals. We do not go with the flow.

[ESerafina42]

Yes, I think it was Will Rogers who said, "I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." That's one reason why I'm puzzled by all this talk of a filibuster-proof majority - when did 60 Democrats all vote the same way on ANYthing?

[pfc1369]

If protocol is about anything, surely it is about appearances.

So however you want to slice it, the protocol (if that is what determined this tableux) did not take into account how this would appear??!!

Very strange...­.

[Durango]

I don't know but I imagine the required protocol was developed in 18th Century France. Or Vienna. Or some such place and time.

So strange indeed. Very strange.

[politicsamerican]

As painful as it for us Americans to face it, it was pretty clear to me that Bush was being rejected and he looked the part. With one of them, he actually looks up, expecting an extended hand. Not getting it, he clearly slumps his shoulders, just like a boy at the school dance who was turned down for dance by a girl.

[omaro]

Bush, as the host, had already met and greeted each of these people on arrival. Proper etiquette is that he then NOT shake hands when he sees them again, since they have already been "introduce­d." Not a rule of etiquette that most of us ever have any use for! I just saw it explained on the PBS series "Monarchy" which showed how Queen Elizabeth shook some hands but not others who had already been introduced to her at an earlier reception.