Barack Obama is young, exciting, and reasonably good looking. He also is the the oddsmakers’ choice to be the next Leader of the Free World. In the same way that JFK had a way with words and Clinton had a way with his…umm…you know, Obama has a way with his fist. But Barack is a lover, not a fighter. And he showed his undying love for his wife, Michelle…with a fist-bump:

In terms of the awkward meter, fist-bumping your wife after winning the Democratic nomination is somewhere in between Michael Jackson’s oral assault on Lisa Marie Presley’s mouth and this:

Al Gore makes out with Tipper

Warning: the above image is inappropriate content and not intended for viewers under the age of 18, those with a heart condition, or pregnant women

I get it: Barack is a cool guy and Michelle is a hip momma (should the “m” be capitalized?). What I don’t get is why Barack would snub a young fan who offered him a fist bump? And he did in the swing state of Ohio! His defense of “If I start that…” could mean a lot of things:

It could mean that he doesn’t want to wear it out and make the bump lose its cool. We all know that once 9 year old Ohioans start doing something, it loses its hipness.

Maybe it means that he only reserves fist bumps for important people. Like his wife. Or voters! (Sorry, convicted felons and non-citizens. No fist bumping for you!)

Maybe it means that the fist bump is actually step one of a secret terrorist fist jab!

I will be the first to say that we shouldn’t have cared about the fist-bump. Being a presidential candidate is more difficult than I can possibly imagine. No matter what presidential couples do, they will always be criticized. A hug and peck on the cheek is probably more appropriate, but it must be a slow news day when fist bumps are treated as voting issues. Barack and Michelle were doing their best to do their own thing…it’s just that the entire media, and country, was watching.

My critique of Obama snubbing the kid is that it shows how political he really is. Barack’s candidacy is completely predicated on “CHANGE!!!!!!! “ In order to embody and engender change, he needs to offer a different kind of politics and a different kind of politician. The fist-bump is something that a non-traditional candidate would do. However, recognizing the political focus on the gesture is EXACTLY what a traditional candidate would do. Obama let the media dictate how he greets his supporters. Worse, he let public polling override the simple wish of a child. At the risk of overdramatizing, an innocent child was publicly embarrassed by a presidential candidate.

Again, this incident is also NOT a voting issue. This doesn’t drastically alter Obama’s naive foreign policy or his psuedo-socialist economic plan. However, it does shed light on one of the most cryptic presidential candidates in recent history. It shows that Obama listens to political advisors. He is very aware of his actions when the camera is on him. I don’t intend this to be a condemnation, but a revelation.

To say that Barack Obama is not a traditional politician is no longer accurate. To say he is not pragmatically political, is equally inaccurate.