Why does Obama reserve his soul brother handshakes for South American socialists?

On the way back from the President’s latest European excursion, CNN White House reporter Ed Henry tweeted that Obama “joked” that he might divert Air Force One to South America so he could visit his buddy Hugo Chavez.

obama-chavez-twitter

And that brings up something we’ve been wondering about since we saw President Obama greet the outgoing President of Brazil at last week’s G-20 meetings:

Why does President Obama reserve his special soul brother handshakes only for South American socialists?

We’ve searched through thousands of photos of Obama shaking hands with world leaders and can only find two in which he does the bro’ shake.

The first was with  Venezuela strongman Hugo Chavez at Obama’s first U.N. conference back in 2009.

The second was with Brazil’s outgoing communist President Luis Inacio Lula de Silva at the previously-mentioned G-20 meeting in Seoul.

Scores of other world leaders, apparently not hip enough to exchange bro’ shakes with Obama or, perhaps, just not politically-attuned enough, just received the regular, boring kind of handshakes heads of state normally exchange.

President Obama and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez display their brotherhood
President Obama and Brazil's outgoing communist President Luis Inacio Lula de Silva show their unity
Pity the Pope. He is not worthy of a soul brother handshake.

We can’t find any photos of President Obama shaking hands with Raul Castro, Evo Morales or Daniel Ortega, but if and when he does we assume they’ll receive the same show of unity and brotherhood that their South American socialist brothers received.

This post was last modified on November 23, 2010

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  • Think there will ever be a black president again? If MLK wasn't rolling in his grave before he is now.

    First person of color to be elected by evil, racist america and this is what he does? May as well put spinning rims on his armored limo.

      • I can't remember with who, but Obama's arrogant demeanor reminded several of us of the Mussolini footage from the 40s. I happened to find a photoshop job on the 'net....so we weren't the only ones!

    • I usually disagree with some of your comments but I must agree. Six months into this person's so called presidency and I just knew in my heart that unless a miracle happens there would be no other president of color in this country for at least the next 20-30 years. He must be a major dissapointment to the idiots that voted for him, and now have opened their eyes to the truth. Obama has spoilt it for for any candidate of color male or female (and even perhaps a white female) who is responsible and could actually do a good job.

      • I look at it this way. There's not a person in the US that doesn't understand that that particular itch (a black person in the White House) had to be scratched. He got in as a literal equal opportunity candidate -- sailed into office on the basis of hope, change, skin color, and as Joe Biden mentioned oh-so-tactfully, "no discernable negro dialect". His poor performance and escapades in office has totally demolished the myth that the equal opportunity mentality is still yielding results -- what we as Americans really want is a good president, and skin color is immaterial.

        All the time that this has been happening, I have noticed that numerous very qualified other-than-male-caucasian people have been quietly rising in the Republican Party. Do I think that equal opportunity programs never worked? No -- they have accomplished enormous amounts of good in opening the door and allowing qualified and talented people to prove themselves. Once that door was opened, it can never be shut.

        However, I do feel that at some point, hiring decisions based upon a racial quota yields poorer and poorer returns to the point where it starts doing more harm than good. I'd have to say that point is now, and I'd point straight at Barry for my proof. In general, black culture can no longer say "the man" is keeping them down, when you don't get to be a more definitive example of "the man" than the President of the US.

        The search for the explanation of why his presidency failed will have to home in on his strengths and weaknesses, and not his skin color. He had the majority of the nation working for him in January 20, 2009, and by the end of 2010, his party is in shambles and his policies are an unmitigated disaster. The whole thing has come crashing down around his jumbo ears, and apparently, he can't even come to grips with that.

        I predict that much like Jimmy Carter, he'll be wandering around the globe in some 20-odd years, mumbling about how he had things going so great, making friends with brutal dictators, and spouting off about conservative presidents at undignified moments. (memo to Jimmy. After 30 years, I still say f*ck you.)

        It is unfortunate that the Democrat party is still full of equal opportunity hires. While some of their people are quite good, the best people always want to avoid the stigma of having gotten their jobs based upon melanin content. They will naturally gravitate towards work where talent and skill are valued over compliance with outdated social memes.

        I don't think that Barry has ruined any chance for a black American to rise to the top office, even in the near term. On the contrary, I think he improved the chance for more qualified people to do so. I do think he ruined the racial quota system referred to as 'equal opportunity', and for that, we should be thankful. I do not thank him personally for it -- he'd have to have wanted to do that intentionally, and I don't think he even realizes he was an equal opportunity president -- he's much too arrogant for that. He hasn't even realized that his presidency was over on March 18, 2010, when he thought he'd won the ObamaCare battle. Historians will point at that date for a number of other pivotal things, including the demise of the Democratic party, and the demise of racial hiring quotas.

        There's a tantalizing list of different presidential candidates -- and several of them are quite viable, showing that the conservatives are looking at talent, not skin color. Again, true talent wants to be respected for itself, and if the only place true talent can get that respect is in the Republican Party, then that's where it will go.

  • donavan,
    The liberals have had the majority during the entire economic meltdown, even during the Bush years.
    The congressional voting record is available on-line.

    socialism, communism, liberal-ism, We Americans dont want any of it.

    Nothing left to argue about.

  • Gee, thanks for the lecture professor. It's too bad you didn't respond to what I actually said. Tell me, where did I say "expressing his solidarity with is [sic] latin american brothers"? Quotation marks actually mean something, don't they? And where did I confuse Latin America with Kenya? You have a fine ability to set up straw men and then demolish them with your superior intellect.
    But I think your education may be lacking too.

  • rockinghorseguy.. i'm not missing any point and i hate to bring up bush, but aren't the bush's and the saudi royal family extremely close? aren't the 19 terrorists from saudi arabia and isn't that regime one of the most oppressive regimes in the world? wasn't the reagan administration responsible for arming iran (iran contra scandal) and wasn't the reagan administration responsible for putting saddam in power and aiding him to the tune of $40billion and arming him with american weaponry and chemicals... and who was reagan's VP? bush senior. somehow... einsteins like yourself find obama someone who identifies with dictators and terrorists? give me a break... by your logic, then reagan, bush senior and bush jr. are also "seeking to lower us to the level of these third-world dictators". so why weren't you up in arms then? why aren't you up in arms now over what they did? i know why... you have no idea what you're talking about.

    • American military aid to Saddam totalled $200 million, far behind the former Soviet Union ($25 billion), France ($5.6 billion), China ($5.2billion), Czechoslovakia ($2.9billion) and also behind Poland, Brazil, Egypt, Romania, Libya and Denmark!

      So who armed who professor? That America armed Saddam is one of the big lies of the left.

      • As I said, Donavan. You always miss the point. Maybe you haven't noticed that I always freely say that I am not now, nor have I ever been, impressed with George Bush. We're talking here about Obama. Pay attention.

        • It's hard to get the point when you only have a limited amount of brain cells, DoNoVan does respond to facts or figures, and he is King of the straw man arguments, just like Dear Leader. Happy Thanksgiving all, remember our troops in harm's way.

  • if i read the comments from elrond hubbard up to RIM, i get a window into the intense intellect expressed by conservatives. i should start with redabogado, because like most conservatives, there seems to be a complete lack of knowledge when discussing socialism and communism. brazil and venezuela are not communist, nor are they socialist. the countries which are most socialist can be found in the netherlands and sweden... which by-the-way, have more stable economies and a higher standard of living than the US. elrond hubbard... "expressing his solidarity with is latin american brothers". you realize that latin america and kenya are not even close to each other. just because people have darker skin, doesn't mean they share a kin-ship or even continent. to add, fidel castro is not a marxist/socialist. he's communist and if you had any education on socialism and communism, you'd understand that communists hate socialists. they run counter to each other. i wish people would get educated.

    • I'll let Mr. Hubbard defend what he had to say on his own. But Donovan, you miss the point every time, and chase numerous straw dogs in each posting. The leaders of the South American countries mentioned, along with Cuba, are all very repressive regimes, not allowing the kind of freedoms for their people to succeed and excel in life, exactly the opposite of our Constitutional Republic. And Obama sees their way of life as being better than ours. Obama and his ilk work diligently towards the destruction of our lifestyle, seeking to lower us to the level of these third-world dictators. Enough said.

  • Obama, by upbinging, education and association, identifies with the Left, especially Latin American Marxists who he sees as having thrown off oppressive, white colonialist regimes. Obama has a similar mission in the United States, to overthrow the existing form of representive government and the capitalist system. replacing them with socialism. He admires men like Castro and Chavez and Ortega because he admires how they run their countries. Obama's "soul brother" handshakes are his way (perhaps subconsciously) of expressing solidarity with the Latin American caudillos.