Ariz. Governor Jan Brewer’s Really Bad Photo Op
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer was on hand to greet President Obama when he landed at the airport in Phoenix today, then things just went badly:
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer traded words with President Obama after she greeted him at a Phoenix airport Wednesday.
Brewer and Obama “spoke intensely for a few minutes” after he landed at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, according to a White House pool report. At one point, the GOP governor shook her finger at the president.
“He was a little disturbed about my book,” Brewer told a reporter after the incident, referring to her political memoir, “Scorpions for Breakfast.” In the book, Brewer depicted Obama as “patronizing” during an earlier meeting.
“I said to him that I have all the respect in the world for the office of the president,” Brewer said. “The book is what the book is. I asked him if he read the book. He said he read the excerpt. So.”
Brewer said Obama told her “that he didn’t feel I had treated him cordially.”
“I said I was sorry he felt that way but I didn’t get my sentence finished,” Brewer said. “Anyway, we’re glad he’s here. I’ll regroup.”
(…)
During Wednesday’s encounter, Brewer handed Obama a handwritten letter asking him to sit down with her to discuss the “Arizona comeback.”
“I thought we probably would’ve talked about the things that were important to him and important to me, helping one another,” Brewer said of a potential meeting with the president. “Our country is upside down. Arizona was upside down. But we have turned it around. I know again that he loves this country and I love this country.”
More from Politico:
The pool reporter, POLITICO’s Carrie Budoff Brown, said the scene was far from the norm. Aside from the pointing, they appeared to talk over each other and he appeared to walk away from her while they were still talking.
Brewer said the president brought up the book.
“I thought we probably would’ve talked about the things that were important to him and important to me, helping one another,” she said, appearing flustered. “Our country is upside down. Arizona was upside down. But we have turned it around. I know again that he loves this country and I love this country.”
Regardless of what words the two actually exchanged, though, there’s just no way you’re going to come off looking good when the White House Pool Photographer takes a picture of you pointing your finger at the President of the United States.
Photo via Associated Press
I disagree.
I wish there were more governors willing to stand up to this guy and his arrogance. He needs a few fingers in his face.
Yeah, not sure what’s the big deal here. He’s the President, not a King and we should be thankful this isn’t Hamilton and Burr.
This will do wonders boosting Brewer’s popularity with the 27%ers like Duane.
@Duane @ All American Blogger: “He needs a few fingers in his face. ”
I don’t know…..I’ve tried the “wagging fingers in people’s face” thing and rather than achieving my goals, it usually gets me kicked out or the police called. Strangely, when you’re an adult, other people actually expect you to act like one. Why is that? It’s so unfair….
I was going to reply but I got Mantis’s elitism in my eye. There’s a lot of it. This might take a while.
Mantis’s elitism
Heh, I’m just a bug.
I don’t know guys but I expect elected officials to act like adults at official occasions, and a Governor greeting the President upon arrival is an official, as opposed to a political, occasion. Brewer has had a short fuse with Obama from the start. Wait to see how she reacts when SCOTUS strikes her immigration law down.
Without knowing exactly how the original meeting went, how could we possibly judge who’s in the right here? I certainly can’t. Or should I just use the old standby and judge them by the letter after their names?
So if Obama gets off the plane and starts some beef with her, she’s just supposed to smile and ask for seconds?
Personally, I’d be a bit peeved too. Plus, he didn’t bow to her. I mean, that’s his thing. Clearly disrespectful.
The pointed finger and the the obviously open, yelling mouth. I don’t care if Obama provoked it (which I doubt), a professional politician never does that sort of thing in front of cameras. Actually, a professional politician in high office never does that to the President. Disagree, yes. Be mad, sure. Blow your top as it looks in this picture, no way.
@RalfW:
That is exactly my point. Context is irrelevant. Of course, the Limbaugh/Gingrich wing of the GOP will love this crap
Nose so far up the King it isn’t funny.
Wow. The Jan Brewer nuts swarm faster than Paulbots.
This will make Brewer a rock star amongst the wingnuts. That’s great for her. Look what popularity amongst the wingnuts has done for Palin and Crazy-eyes.
Brewer should be careful…Obama might sic Seal Team Six on her wrinkly old arse.
Seems to me that Duane and Andy have the best of it. Regardless of the decorum with which one believes the President should be treated (and on that totally irrelevant point I totally agree with Doug), and regardless of one’s desire to heap scorn on that oh-so-dumb Republican base, I can’t see how this can be spun as a bad photo op for Brewer. The people who will be offended by it are by-and-large the kind of folks who already hated her, the kind of folks who voted for her will love it, and insofar as there seems to be more of the latter than the former in Arizona, I’d say she’ll do pretty well from this. This plays great to the folks she’s pitching to, which seems to make it a win for her even if you think it’s stupid, she’s stupid, and her supporters are stupid.
@Duane @ All American Blogger:
“So if Obama gets off the plane and starts some beef with her, she’s just supposed to smile and ask for seconds?”
To the faux-“moderate” OTB blogger who only trashes Republicans… yes.
If Obama didn’t act like an adult (e.g., making fun of Special Olympics athletes, joking about killing the Jonas Brothers with drone attacks, lashing out at Supreme Court justices at a previous SOTU, acting like an embarrassing a-hole at the Obamacare health care summit years ago, etc.)… the venerable OTB morality goalie would just pretend it didn’t happen.
Imagine Duane Andy and Miscreant if Pelosi had gotten all up in Bush’s grill.
Remember when Conservative was more than talk radio buffoons?
Hey, who let all these kids in here?
@Simon: It will help her locally in Arizona. But coming off the heels of the SOTU last night and the tenor of GOP debates, she’s playing into the national frame that the GOP is rather rabid, the Prez is calm and collected.
Maybe I’m being too meta. Maybe not that many people will hear about this. It does seem that if Gov. Jennifer Granholm had managed this photo-op with President Bush in Michigan in, say 2006, the 27%-ers would’ve going ape-$#!t.
Miscreant….
“…lashing out at Supreme Court justices at a previous SOTU…”
Actually he correctly predicted the result of Citizens United…which we are seeing today in the Republican Primaries. Maybe you should look up “lashing”…you don’t seem to understand the correct usage.
@Hey Norm: I was too busy laughing at Miscreant’s list of petty grievances to bother responding. Besides, Miscreant seems to be under the impression that Doug is some kind of faux-moderate.
Libertarianism is the new fake moderation, I guess?
I always wonder why Republicans get off on being such insufferable @$$#oles. This picture elaborates on this phenomenon.
Why should Obama met with her privately when she lied about it the first time? And then when he brings this up she puts his finger in his face? If my 7 year old nephew did that I would reprimand him. She’s a grown woman. Really?
I guess the fact that she was rude to the President means she’s a great patriot tho. Thomas Jefferson would be proud, I suppose.
More of Obama’s political equals treating him like he is a king, right James and Doug?
@Hey Norm:
“Maybe you should look up “lashing”…you don’t seem to understand the correct usage.”
Nice try.
Going off on SCOTUS justices for supposedly getting the case wrong- which even the NY Times had to admit Obama was factually mistaken in parts, in doing so- at a forum in which those accused had no opportunity to defend themselves is indeed “lashing out”. And extremely unpresidential.
@Miscreant: Nice misdirection you got there, Mis.
Obama was right and that’s why Alito and Scalia couldn’t find their way to the Capitol yesterday evening. Or perhaps Roberts told them — like children — if they couldn’t behave, don’t come.
Either way, the three of them, Alito, Scalia and Thomas, look like kids that can’t control themselves.
Which gets us back to Brewer. She couldn’t act like an adult either.
They all think they are better than the president. James thinks differently. As does Doug. These people don’t see the president as their equal. They see themselves as better than him.
Just like you do Mis.
Ralf, that’s kind of my point. 😉 You say that “[i]t will help her locally in Arizona”–well, she’s the governor of Arizona. If she runs for anything again, she’s either going to seek reelection to that position, or to another statewide office in Arizona, or perhaps Congress, so if this photo helps her in Arizona, it’s hard to see how it can be called a bad photo op. If a photo op plays well to the people whose opinions matter in her ball game, it’s a good photo op no matter how much it makes me and Doug roll our eyes from a thousand miles, and no matter how much it entrenches the left’s view of her as a bad person.
If your point’s that it reflects on the party at large, well, if moderate independents don’t agree that Obama deserves this kind of public spanking, we’ve already lost. The GOP wins this year if moderates are sick of Obama and we nominate a candidate who doesn’t scare the hell out of them. The first part’s not under our control, so we’d better hope that moderate independents look at this kind of picture and disagree with Doug’s (quite correct) sense of decorum.
Aside from the pointing, they appeared to talk over each other and he appeared to walk away from her while they were still talking.
Barry doesn’t brook anyone who disagrees with Himself about anything, anytime, anywhere.
Good for Governor Brewer. As one earlier commenter notes–It’s high time the governors wag their fingers in this arrogant twit’s face.
@Michelle:
Actually, Scalia hasn’t gone to one in 10 or 11 years. So you can’t really lump him with the others in your reasoning in that comment. Pretty sure his reasons for not attending are purely his own.
You Republicans are so mean spirited and disrespectful. Go to Hell!
@Michelle:
“Obama was right and that’s why…”
That’s some pretty impressive reasoning ability you have there, Michelle…
@OldSouth: You guys are killing me here, my eyes are watering. So finger-wagging will bring him down a notch, eh? And if that doesn’t work, I expect you’ll break out the “talk to the hand” next … that’ll really teach ’em! LOL!
I would say that Brewer embarrassed the state of Arizona today, but she does that pretty much every day.
@Simon: If a photo op plays well to the people whose opinions matter in her ball game, it’s a good photo op
And my point is that to the people who’s opinion matters in a national election later this year, this photo op plays well for Obama by making a visible and already divisive Republican look more so….
@OldSouth: Barry doesn’t brook anyone who disagrees with himself about anything, anytime, anywhere.
Any you know this because?
Is Brewer your governor? No, then why should you care? Adults? Like those stoic Japanese politicians that get in fistfights?
This “incident” (if it even merits that term) will be forgotten in a week to be replaced by some equally meaningless “outrage.”
Video of the exchange:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1LLalrQcWo
Worth noting the President doesn’t appear particularly animated & he’s still smiling as he as he greets the next member of the greeting delegation.
It seems very possible that the President wasn’t at all bothered by the exchange & perhaps Gov. Brewer wasn’t either, but once that symbolic pool photo was released her team decided to exploit the situation. She spoke about it to the local press, then to Right-Wing radio stations, then to Gretta on her Fox show and I just saw her on CNN doing some sort of press avail on it. At each step of the way the story of the exchange grows in how properly she behaved and how she was really the aggrieved party.
She’s milking the whole thing like a pro.
@Andy:
You’re gonna hang your hat on that? You can only criticize government officials from your own state? Seriously, even you don’t believe that. Let’s look at the very next thing you wrote.
Do you live in Japan? No, then why should you care?
@Hey Norm: Actually he correctly predicted the result of Citizens United…which we are seeing today in the Republican Primaries.
Let’s go to the tape, shall we? Obama to the Supreme Court:
Go, Jan!
Obama, in his illegal recess appointments, argued that since Congress refused to do its job, that he had no choice but to act.
However, when Arizona passed its illegal alien law, it used the very same argument — that since the federal government was refusing to do its job, it had to act. The Obama administration went to court to enforce its right to not only refuse to do its job, but to keep anyone else from doing the job.
Obama doesn’t like having his lies and hypocrisies pointed out. He doesn’t grasp that the simplest way to avoid that is to simply not lie and be hypocritical.
Fake news at its finest.
Oh boy, now the right has a new hero. Maybe they’ll run her for VP. Actually, what she’s saying in this shot is “pull my finger.”
Apparently Obama got off the plane and immediately told Brewer he didn’t like what she said about him in her book.
Tip for The World’s Smartest Man: if you don’t want to have public disagreements with people, don’t bring up areas where you disagree with them in public. Not everyone will immediately bow and scrape and defer to Your Greatness. A lot of Americans are aware that they are citizens, not subjects, and the president is not their sovereign, but their employee.
@Kitty Wilberforce:
She’s not starbursty enough to be the VP nominee.
@ Jenos….
It’s been pretty well documented that the US Camber of Commerce is laundering foreign campaign contributions.
@Hey Norm: A few points:
1) If they were “laundering,” then the Citizens United decision had absolutely no effect on the process. Obama said CU made it legal for foreign corporations to spend on US campaigns, so there would be no need for “laundering.”
2) The US Chamber has thoroughly and utterly debunked that lie.
3) Since the Citizens United case specifically did NOT change the law regarding foreign contributions (they’re still illegal), one would expect the Obama Justice Department to thoroughly investigate the Chamber for breaking the law. Or, if they’re too busy giving guns to Mexican drug cartels, then for other people to give names of foreign corporations who are trying to influence our elections. With so many people so highly motivated to prove that it’s happening, I take the fact that no such specifics have come out as pretty compelling circumstantial evidence that it isn’t happening.
And even if it did, they’d have a ready-made defense: President Obama himself proclaimed that it was legal.
It’s not, of course, and such a defense would be legally suicidal, but it would be tremendously satisfying to hear it said.
@Duane @ All American Blogger: What did you get in your eye again?
Obama is a pompous, arrogant, Marxist Ahole. My guess is he started the exchange. Good for Jan, can’t wait till he is the ex president.
@ Jenos…
Thank you for making my argument for me.
@Bob:
January 20, 2017.
@Andy: The boy president gets the respect he deserves. A man would have avoided this situation by being a man, not a metrosexual from the morally bankrupt bastions of NYC, DC, Chicago & LA. These males have been neutered by the NAGS they don’t even stand to pee anymore. What’s happened to all the men in Washington?
KP from Austin
Holy cow, good to see that OTB is as much of a joke as ever. Way to go, Doug — your constant cries for greater sensitivity will be remembered through the ages for sure!
Hey Norm says:
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 22:22
Brewer should be careful…Obama might sic Seal Team Six on her wrinkly old arse.
More threats from the lunatic h8r
Ralf,
Mantis’ comment above illustrates the problem. He’s really incensed by this incident—you know, boy, it just makes him steamed. She’s embarassing his state! But then, without even pausing for a period or semicolon, Mantis tips his hand: “but she does that pretty much every day.” Okay. So Mantis alrady disliked her. And so far as I can tell, the fokls above who approve? They already liked her and/or thought the President needed a telling off. Have you encountered anyone whose reaction to this picure didn’t line up with their previous views of Brewer and/or Obama?
“Since the Citizens United case specifically did NOT change the law regarding foreign contributions (they’re still illegal),”
That´s not the point. The point is about American Subsidiaries of Foreign Campaings contributing to SuperPACs. The Brazilian government can use Petrobras America Inc. to attack a candidate that they don´t like(In fact, Hugo Chavez can do the same thing using Citgo).
As she said..she has all the respect in the world for the “office of the president,” just not this particular President. The best way to get a persons cooperation or agreement or help is to berate them in public and wag a finger in their face while they are a guest in your state.
Boner, Brewer, Cantor, Mitch McConnell …that whole GOP bunch do not disguise in any way how they feel about this man of color as President. They want to put him in his place and President is not it…maybe gardener or bellhop or chauffeur, but not President.
Bandit…Isn’t there some dog poo on the ground you should be rolling around in?
I think it’s funny. I expect Obama thinks its funny. Maybe that’s patronizing of us. 😉
Maybe she is just freaked out about all those bodies of beheaded Americans buried in the desert.
@ John…
Obama is smiling as he walks away if you watch the video.
I can’t imagine him getting too worked up over Brewer. I imagine at this point in his life he is able to ignore bigots.
The Republican screamer base will love stunting like this. Otherwise it’s completely disastrous for Brewer (who looks and sounds like a bit of a harridan) and for the Republican image.
@Bob:
Bob and co prove my point about the Republican screamer base. What else is there to say?
Brewer has a 68% disapproval with Hispanics. Bet you $10,000 the Obama Campaign is loving that picture a whole lot more than even the wingnuts right now.
Meep f’ing Meep.
@Doug Mataconis: I agree with you, I am apalled at the disrespect being shown to our President, especially from people in authority who should be giving a good example to others I dont know if the govrnor was there officially to meet the arriving presidentbut whether or not she was respect should be shown. if you dont show respect for your President then you cant have respect vfor the constitution, or the Star Spangled banner for that matter. I am truly disgusted about this episode.
I am disgusted at how people are disrepecting our President
Unless Obama was actually sexual harrassing her or taunting her about dead relatives there is absolutely no excuse to be wagging your finger in anger at the President of the US. At the absolute heated peaks of hatred towards Bush from the Iraq War, you would NEVER hear Democratic officials interupt Bush’s State of the Union shouting he lies, or wagging their fingers in his face on a tarmac. Same thing with Clinton in the 90’s during his lows. There was always a line that was understood, with a respect for the office and title of President. I’m not exactly sure what makes Obama so different to draw so much outward hatred from Repub officials he’s not a blowhard or aggressive. But whatever it is about Obama that brings out such viciousness from elected officials, it needs to stop. He won the Presidency just like Republican Presidents and deserves the respect of one.
@ Voltron…
Have you noticed that he is not a caucasion?
@All-American Voltron:
“At the absolute heated peaks of hatred towards Bush from the Iraq War, you would NEVER hear Democratic officials interupt Bush’s State of the Union… There was always a line that was understood, with a respect for the office and title of President.”
Oops!…:
“Flashback: Democrats Boo Bush At 2005 State Of The Union”
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/09/10/flashback_democrats_boo_bush_at_2005_state_of_the_union.html
Miscreant…
Booing is different from screaming out “You Lie” as Joe Wilson did.
Nice reach though.
Keep trying.
@lou91940: The disrespectful actions of her and many of her Republican colleagues display a pretty consistent and clear sentiment: You may be President, but you’re still a ******”
@Miscreant: are you kidding me? booing? there is a huge difference. and how often did that actually happen? Every SOTU address so far, there’s been some sort of verbal heckling. Even this past one, but no one seized on it but it was clear if you watched the entire broadcast. If a white guy is the next President and people constantly interupt him, accuse him of being a secret terrorist, wag their fingers in his face, and say he doesn’t have the “right” to be President, than you are all exempt, as this is just the newest trend. But until that day comes you’d all best keep your disagreements to the President in more traditional methods.
@Hey Norm:
That’s the best you can come up with? Lame.
The viciousness is from years and years of Fox, Limbaugh, etc. spinning the right into a frothy hate machine. Race is a factor, but I think Obama’s main crime is the (D) after his name. That makes him the enemy.
@All-American Voltron:
“@Miscreant: are you kidding me? booing? there is a huge difference…”
There is a huge difference… only because you say there is a huge difference.
You set up this phony sanctimonious argument about showing respect towards a president… and then you move the goalposts when I point out that the Democrats did something that wasn’t very respectful towards a Republican president.
Who gets to determine then when that “line is crossed”? Well, you do! If a Republican does something- anything- regardless of the context (maybe Obama really was being rude with Brewer… but hey, who cares?- she’s a Republican!) then it’s all their fault. If a Democrat did the exact same thing, then he or she is automatically blameless. Why? Because you said so.
Congratulations! You’ve “won” the argument. Now go make yourself useful and rescue some abandoned babies or rape victims at #OWS…
Interesting that this thread produces a particularly long list of partisan shouters defending grotesquely bad behavior. Even Doug who is a partisan conservative gets it that this is over the line. What is wrong with these people? Politically at its lowest level this photo is gold for Obama both nationally and particularly in AZ which is a swing state and where this womans disapprovals among hispanics is in the stratosphere and across all voters is around 58%.
@ mis·cre·ant /ˈmɪskriənt/ [mis-kree-uhnt] adjective,
1. depraved, villainous, or base.
Clapping shows approval…Booing shows disapproval. They are two sides of the same coin.
Calling someone a liar is an accusation. It’s a charge of wrong-doing. It’s completely different, and in fact there is a huge difference between the two…whether you are capable of understanding basics of the English language or not.
Wow, that Real American Jan Brewer sure put the Kenyan Marxist Muslin [sic] Non-American Barry Soetoro in his place, just like Speaker Gingrich did to that Juan Williams.
Gingrich-Brewer 2012!
@Hey Norm:
“whether you are capable of understanding basics of the English language or not.”
The other commenter’s point was that Democrats were always respectful to Bush at State of the Unions I pointed out that booing was disrespectful.
You might want to look up the word “respect” in your dictionary- that is, after you wipe your drool off of it.
@ Miscreant…
STFU already.
I’m trying to remember the last time either side showed the office of the president the respect it deserved…
@Hey Norm:
“STFU already.”
I don’t think the OTB civility blogger is going to be very happy with that kind of language there, Norman.
Calm down. Take a deep breath. Remove your hands from your child’s throat, and put your belt back on. Everything’s going to be okay.
And thus Miscreant moves the goal posts.
I am sure he deserved it… www.ThePointingFinger.com
http://news.yahoo.com/low-iq-conservative-beliefs-linked-prejudice-180403506.html
Mind you J. S. Mill figured this out 150 years ago.
Maybe Governor Brewer was just explaining to President Obama that she did not have sexual relations with that woman.
@ Septimius
I see conservatives are still mad because Clinton can get women without having to give them a 500K line of credit at Tiffany’s.
@anjin-san: Yep. All Clinton had to do was grope them, or drop his pants and tell them to kiss it, or (if you believe Juanita Broaddrick) rape them. Yeah, Bill Clinton is a real ladies man.
Who has respect for the national anthem? Watched anyone perform it before an NFL game recently?