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Just when you thought the Democratic race couldn’t get uglier, Barack Obama is being accused of giving Hillary Clinton the finger at a town hall meeting in North Carolina.
The gesture — which may have been an innocent scratch of the face or, according to some, something more mischievous — came as Obama was complaining Thursday about the debate in Philadelphia the night before.
Bloggers were quick to note that as the Illinois senator scolded his Democratic rival for her performance at the debate, he raised his right hand and scratched his cheek with one finger. That finger.
“This is one of those political moments that really needs few words,” wrote the Los Angeles Times in a blog. “He’ll no doubt deny it later, but that mischievous smile seems to confirm plenty. And the crowd sure sees something.”
Obama started his address in Raleigh, N.C., by complaining that the debate on ABC “set a new record because it took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people.”
Then he lumped Clinton in with the ABC moderators, who he said were playing “gotcha games.”
“And I’d say Senator Clinton looked in her element,” he said. He paused. Then he raised his right hand and scratched his cheek with his middle finger. He smiled slightly, and the crowd cheered.
The cheers, of course, could have been for his verbal jab at Clinton.
Obama’s campaign denied the gesture was anything more than a harmless face scratch.
But some bloggers said otherwise.
“Talk about no class: Barack Obama gives Hillary the middle finger,” read one headline on Redstate.com.
“Obama gives Hillary the finger,” reads a post on YouTube.
“Obama fingers a ‘gotcha’ debate,” the Chicago Tribune’s Swamp blog slyly intimated.
Clinton herself has made no mention of the incident, other than to say Obama should stop whining.
In an interview with Fox 29 in Philadelphia, Clinton said of her Democratic opponent, “I know he spent all day yesterday complaining about the hard questions he was asked. Being asked tough questions in a debate is nothing like the pressures you face inside the White House.”
“I’ve been through, what, 23 of these debates?” she said. “As I recall, I was asked some pretty tough questions in nearly every one of them.”
ABC News seized on a different gesture.
A video on the ABC News Web site titled “Obama ‘Brushes Off’ Dem Debate” highlights the moment toward the end of his complaint where he says he understands how petty politics get injected into presidential races.
“You gotta expect it and you just gotta kinda let it …” he said, then suavely brushed his right shoulder twice, as if to cast off the political nastiness from the night before
The gesture — which may have been an innocent scratch of the face or, according to some, something more mischievous — came as Obama was complaining Thursday about the debate in Philadelphia the night before.
Bloggers were quick to note that as the Illinois senator scolded his Democratic rival for her performance at the debate, he raised his right hand and scratched his cheek with one finger. That finger.
“This is one of those political moments that really needs few words,” wrote the Los Angeles Times in a blog. “He’ll no doubt deny it later, but that mischievous smile seems to confirm plenty. And the crowd sure sees something.”
Obama started his address in Raleigh, N.C., by complaining that the debate on ABC “set a new record because it took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people.”
Then he lumped Clinton in with the ABC moderators, who he said were playing “gotcha games.”
“And I’d say Senator Clinton looked in her element,” he said. He paused. Then he raised his right hand and scratched his cheek with his middle finger. He smiled slightly, and the crowd cheered.
The cheers, of course, could have been for his verbal jab at Clinton.
Obama’s campaign denied the gesture was anything more than a harmless face scratch.
But some bloggers said otherwise.
“Talk about no class: Barack Obama gives Hillary the middle finger,” read one headline on Redstate.com.
“Obama gives Hillary the finger,” reads a post on YouTube.
“Obama fingers a ‘gotcha’ debate,” the Chicago Tribune’s Swamp blog slyly intimated.
Clinton herself has made no mention of the incident, other than to say Obama should stop whining.
In an interview with Fox 29 in Philadelphia, Clinton said of her Democratic opponent, “I know he spent all day yesterday complaining about the hard questions he was asked. Being asked tough questions in a debate is nothing like the pressures you face inside the White House.”
“I’ve been through, what, 23 of these debates?” she said. “As I recall, I was asked some pretty tough questions in nearly every one of them.”
ABC News seized on a different gesture.
A video on the ABC News Web site titled “Obama ‘Brushes Off’ Dem Debate” highlights the moment toward the end of his complaint where he says he understands how petty politics get injected into presidential races.
“You gotta expect it and you just gotta kinda let it …” he said, then suavely brushed his right shoulder twice, as if to cast off the political nastiness from the night before