Note where HMQEII is standing while POTUSGWB speaks from the podium.
Note where POTUSGWB is standing while HMQEII speaks from the podium. Discourtesy much?
The poor woman has to get through a State Dinner in Washington shortly, sitting at the same table with this ungracious buffoon. I’m not a monarchist, but not even a parasite upon the proletariat deserves that.
BTW, is anyone surprised that POTUSGWB doesn’t know the proper way to pronounce Edinburgh?
“The poor woman has to get through a State Dinner in Washington shortly, sitting at the same table with this ungracious buffoon. I’m not a monarchist, but not even a parasite upon the proletariat deserves that.”
Yeah, cuts me to the quick real bad too, tigtog. Wonder what possessed Brenda to dignify the Court of The Imbecile in the first place.
OK, I am clearly betraying my ignorance here but despite clicking on the link I can’t really see what the difference is, apart from him being a tall dude and her a short lady. THEY APPEAR TO BE STANDING IN THE SAME PLACE /yell
I’m with you, Arleeshar. Short of the Shrub actually (and deliberately) insulting the Granny of Windsor, who cares? I thought all of that annointed by God had long since been dismissed by sane, clear-thinking people everywhere … which leaves open the possibility that America should be grateful GWB wasn’t bowing low and offering to hand back the original 13 colonies.
I was curious as to how obvious it was to anyone who didn’t click on the link to get Melissa’s dead-on commentary.
When POTUS is speaking, HM is standing not only to the side but also behind.
When HM is speaking, POTUS is standing to the side but closer than HM was, and is also still up the front alongside her instead of moving back a step or two while she is speaking.
In stagecraft terms he is literally upstaging her. Piss poor protocol, but not as bad as when he massaged German Chancellor Merkel or grabbed Chinese President Hu’s jacket.
Oh well, at least he didn’t actually touch her!
Remember the furore then, mind you PJK just broke a stupid protocol taboo, while GWB is just being plain rude.
Don’t much like ol’ Dubya but methinks this much ado about less than nothing. Who are you trying to be: Kotsuke no Suke?
He said something stupid about her (I forget what), then he winked at her. What a maroon. Even Republicans must be embarrassed over this.
He said: “She gave me a look that only a motherr could give a child.” Then he turned and winked at her.
Worst. President. Ever.
You have to really look at the photo carefully to see that he is looming over her and crowding her — as TT said, it’s more that he is standing alongside her, which one does not do when ANYBODY is speaking onstage; one stands back, as Her Maj is doing in the first photo. It’s not about her being Her Maj, it’s about him being a pig-rude moron.
Here you go.
Spare a thought for Bush’s minders, string-pullers and backroom boys, after seven nonstop years of this kind of stuff. The muscles they use to roll their eyes must be incredibly well-developed.
Chimpo is following protocol.
QEII is merely the Head of a religious denomination.
But God talks directly to Chimpo.
God told him that he could stand wherever he goshdarned likes.
Katz, every time you use the word ‘Chimpo’, somewhere, a Labor-voting fairy dies.
Seriously man, you’re losing the plot.
Whilst I think the other commentary is spot on, I must say that whilst it’s hard to hear, he does actually pronounce Edinburgh correctly. Which is a nitpick, I know, but he mispronounces enough on his own that we don’t need to attribute mispronunciations he doesn’t make to him.
No need to apologise for nitpicking, Jennifer. Good catch.
Chimpo. Chimpo. Chimpo.
Die, Labor fairies. Die.
So fucking what.
Your PM patted her on the bum.
Bet she likes a bit of mix up in the protocol.
Tigtog you refer to ‘ungracious buffoons’ and ‘parasites upon the proletariat’ and point to a site with even more salty language in the comments than those on this thread - and you complain protocol?
If there is a joke in this, it seems it’s on you.
Who said irony was dead?
P.S. Sad though it is for humanity and indeed the known universe, I am not a Head of State. The protocols which constrain my interactions with my peers are not as micromanaged or freighted with long-standing traditions of etiquette as those to which Heads of State are expected to adhere.
As pointed out by BigBob, PJK’s gaffe was just breaking a taboo, and was with genuinely helpful intentions (and was not a pat on the bloody bum). GWB is being actually rude.
“Die, Labor fairies. Die.”
Clap clap clap clap clap clap