In the Middle East, throwing a shoe at someone is an insult. And this is the thanks the President received for freeing Iraq from Saddam Hussein. Like the old saying has it, “no good deed goes unpunished.” How fitting!

NormanF on December 14, 2008 at 7:03 pm

And if someone had assassinated the President, then the Secret Service agents assigned to safeguard him would have been sent to Alaska? When you have bureaucrats in charge – no one’s safe – not even the leader of our country.

NormanF on December 14, 2008 at 7:06 pm

So what your saying is that the SS was not fast on their feet … maybe the journalist was simply lending them better shoes?
I posted an (attempt at humor) article on my blog earlier today. If interested, you can check it out at:
http://rougerevival.blogspot.com/2008/12/chucked-shoes-sail-to-chief.html
Jimmy Lewis
SCS, Michigan
Blog: http://rougerevival.blogspot.com/

Jimmy on December 14, 2008 at 8:39 pm

What about that other time in Santiago where the President was almost seperated from his Secret Service detail. The Chilean security stopped the Secret Service from following Bush into antoher room and Bush had to grab the Secret Service agent and pull him along.
And what about that time in Tblisi where someone threw a hand grenade at President Bush but it failed to detonate.

PrincessKaren on December 14, 2008 at 8:41 pm

I figure Bush could smell em coming! Ha!

ob3 on December 14, 2008 at 9:19 pm

Well, it was an Iraqi journalist who threw the shoe, and we all know that Islam is the religion of peace. Naturally the Secret Service would not have expected trouble from a representative of the religion of peace. They quite rightly would have concentrated their efforts on 80-year-old grandmothers.

c f on December 14, 2008 at 9:22 pm

Why not switch the role of the Presidential Protective Detail to the military? The military certainly is a meritocracy with clear accountability for screw ups (Colin Powel being the only exception I know of to both).

i_am_me on December 14, 2008 at 9:39 pm

Cf states:
*Well, it was an Iraqi journalist who threw the shoe, and we all know that Islam is the religion of peace. Naturally the Secret Service would not have expected trouble from a representative of the religion of peace. They quite rightly would have concentrated their efforts on 80-year-old grandmothers.*
You have a great point. The FBI, CIA, and now apparently the Secret Service don’t seem to think Islam or crazed Leftists are threats. To them, WE are threats to “peaceful” Mohammedan-Americans and Islam is the “oppressed” religion in the Middle East, not Judaism or Christianity. So it not surprising that these clueless secret service agents are nowhere to be found in this incident.
Also, when I lived in Korea a few years ago, I noticed how inept the American embassy staff had become, particularly the youngest ones, who were very “multicultural” because of all the affirmative action. I suspect that those who now hire in the Secret Service place race and ethnicity above hiring the best candidates. It is every agency in government that is suffering because of it.

Gabe on December 14, 2008 at 9:45 pm

Also, I wouldn’t be in the least surprised that many in the Secret Service staff are Muslims and naturally wouldn’t care too much about protecting the president. Anyone remember that Muslim secret service agent who was actually reciting the Koran on an airplane before he was booted off the plane?
http://www.bintjbeil.com/E/news/011227_agent.html
I’m sure the Secret Service has been EXTRA careful to make up for this slight by hiring numerous new Arabs as secret service agents.

Gabe on December 14, 2008 at 9:49 pm

What?! You think this is the first time the President has had to dodge a shoe thrown at him?!

Yiddish Steel on December 14, 2008 at 10:33 pm

Debbie, I hope you’re putting the final touches on your Bernie Madoff post. My take is that in part he did a public service, separating dumb people from their money. If he hadn’t swindled nonprofits, I’d say he should just get community service. BTW my own experience with wealthy Jewish business people is that they routinely overestimate their own intelligence.

Anonymous1 on December 14, 2008 at 11:28 pm

Let the people from Blackwater guard the President. That “Journalist” would would be dead.
[D: RIGHT ON! BUT THEN THE BLACKWATER GUARDS WOULD GET SUED AND INDICTED FOR DOING THEIR JOBS. DS]

Dave on December 14, 2008 at 11:54 pm

Ya gotta give Bush credit; great reflexes!!

mplumb on December 15, 2008 at 1:29 am

I wish Chuck Norris had been there to spin kick this jerk shoe boy back to his rock he lives under.
Seriously, someone should have taken his shoes and beat him silly with them.
This is why we need to leave their stupid country, now. Let all the idiots there just kill each other.

Jeff_W on December 15, 2008 at 2:22 am

The Secret Service is consumed with “looking” like they are protecting the President rather than actually protecting him. The last supervisor that I had before I retired was was a former Secret Service Agent. He was by far the most incompetent federal agent I have ever known. In a 32 year career, I never met an agent with less investigative skills. His intelligence and judgment were even worse. He was actually headed to the PPD when he jumped to Customs to avoid moving to Washington D.C. Of course he kissed ass and was promoted to a group supervisor even though he couldn’t spell CUSTOMS. Its all show and no go at the Secret Service. It’s even worse at ICE. That’s why they call it the Department of Homeland Stupidity.

bonzerwolf on December 15, 2008 at 4:06 am

I figured the shoe thrower was Keith Olbermann. Oh well, maybe Keith will make the thrower his Best Person in the World.

Blayne on December 15, 2008 at 7:40 am

Gonna miss the little knucklehead

EminemsRevenge on December 15, 2008 at 8:45 am

I’ve always cast a gimlet eye at the Secret Service. The same agency ‘protects’ our President (and other notables) is the same agency that ‘protects’ the currency issued by the Federal Reserve?
That’s more than a little praetorian.
Follow The Money is the truest aphorism on the planet and will continue to be the most reliable until Mankind vanishes. The same armed guards employed to prevent debauchment of a privately issued, nationally borrowed currency is the same outfit empowered to shield the President in more ways than just taking a bullet. Just like the FBI, there’s a lot of cooperation between media myth makers and the Service … which is disturbingly termed ‘Secret’ in what is meant to be an open and free society.
I just roll this over in my head again and again … the same outfit that protects a privately issued scrip, somehow gets tasked as well to guard the top executive of the nation that borrows that scrip.
Armed men protecting a private currency are the same armed men gathered round our President.
It bothers me.

BlackFlagQ55 on December 15, 2008 at 10:35 am

And the ‘Service’, let’s not forget … failed to protect GWB from a hand grenade in the Republic of Georgia; and GW had to rescue one of his ‘protective detail’ while in Chile, rather than the other way around. http://www.alarmingnews.com/archives/002138.html The ‘Service’ also allowed a van full of ‘middle eastern men’ to approach GW’s vacation digs as close as the front gate before they were stopped (they claimed to have a pool side interview with GW).

BlackFlagQ55 on December 15, 2008 at 11:06 am

I said this 5 years ago, and I’ll say it again;
We lost a lot of good Americans trying to bring democracy to a bunch of barbarians who:
A. Have no concept nor the capacity to understand the concept of democracy,
B. Have no interest nor the ability to govern themselves,
C. Are a bunch of unappreciative, ungrateful bastards who would rather walk through the gates of Hell because they are wedded to a religious cult whose founder was a murderous psychopath rather than having a chance to live in peace amongst themselves and their neighbors.
Islam = The Religion of Perpetual Murder

Thee_Bruno on December 15, 2008 at 11:53 am

If that retard had thrown the shoe at Saddam he’d be hanging by his balls with other parts of his body all over the place.
Yes, Bush should get the American soldiers out of that barbarian mozloom country. Whats the point in bringing democracy to a bunch of moon-worshipping pedo following lunatics who are anyway destined to hell on earth and hell when they die? They’ll never govern themselves even in a million years. Why even worry about their well-being when they insult the person who brought them freedom?
Get the brave soldiers out of that craphole, its not worth risking freedom-loving lives for cult-of-piss followers. Let them kill each other, they’ve been doing it for centuries, let them finish it now.

anonymous twit on December 15, 2008 at 12:25 pm

Bush to Media: Dodgeball anyone? Not bad for a 61 year old man.

californiascreaming on December 15, 2008 at 2:50 pm

This incident is a national embarrassment. Bush’s Secret Service detail should all be sent out to the pucca brush on general principle. This level of performance is simply unacceptable.
President Bush’s aplomb and bemusement here was impressive. I wouldn’t have been so cool.
I hope this journalist suffers a DePalma-like rendition where he might be taught some manners.

thegreatbeast on December 15, 2008 at 4:45 pm

The missiles thrown could have just as easily been a bomb, or gunshots. The shoe thrower’s aim, as Debbie notes, was quite good, and Bush could easily have been killed if deadlier stuff than a shoe had been the weapon of choice. The incompetent deployment and glacially slow reflexes of the Keystone Koplike Secret Service must be seen in this video to be believed. They should all be fired immediately.

commonsense on December 15, 2008 at 11:19 pm

Many in the media and talks shows are hee-hawing and having a good time with this, but to me this is a serious and shameful incident. I may be a “liberal” and not a fan of President Bush, but he is still President and the lead representative of the United States until January 20, 2009. It is inconceivable to me that anyone, especially someone claiming to be a professional member of the press, would actually stand up and throw something at a visiting head of state….and then be celebrated as a hero!
And then his employer demanded his immediate release….what the hell? He wasn’t jailed over some article he wrote or for not revealing a source….the loon attacked the President of the United States and they want him released? What kind of operation are they running??? Just like I felt Condi should have slapped the living hell out of that protester who accosted her a few months back, I feel this man should have gotten an ass-whuppin’ on the spot. Trying to assault a sitting American President is no laughing matter to me….

JibberJabber on December 16, 2008 at 11:26 am

IT WAS STAGED ! Bush knew that the shoe was comming at him watch his eyes ! As the saying goes ” wait for it, wait for it, wait for it !

Johnny V on December 16, 2008 at 2:37 pm

Anyone old enough to remember Nikita Krushchev banging his shoe on the table and saying “We will bury you”? There was common agreement back then – in a time before poltical correctness – that he, was not quite civilized.

crazycatkids on December 16, 2008 at 4:23 pm