There’s been some hooplah the last couple days regarding the video of Bush “flipping off reporters.”

Here’s the video:

Click to play

I admit, it does look quite a bit like Bush is flipping the bird, but I am 100% positive that is not what is being depicted. I spent some time this morning with the GIMP doing some rotoscoping and photographing my own hand and have come up with this scenario.

Click to enlarge

While I was painstakingly tracing hand shaped outlines on the really zoomed in image, I could clearly see the shadowing and lighting hilights of everything I was tracing. There’s no doubt in my mind this is what happened.

I would have to agree with many of the detractors who say that flipping the bird is a gesture one should not expect from the President of the greatest country in the world, but even had he done it, it wouldn’t be that big a deal. People tend to put politicians (and our founding fathers) on this pedestal like they are more than mere mortals. It is fun to point out when Bush makes mistakes or does stupid shit because frankly, he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But does he have to be? No. That’s what his handlers are for. Presidents don’t write speeches. Presidents don’t answer questions unless the question has been previously approved. I’m not saying that Bush doesn’t make decisions about things, but he has good people who are there to present him with a multitude of information about the decisions, so the fact that he’s no genius doesn’t really matter all that much.

It isn’t often that I defend Bush on things, but this seems like a pretty clear case of people who don’t like him grasping at straws just trying to find stuff to make him look bad.

That said, here’s video of Bush flipping the bird for real.

Click to play