Bush Makes Surprise Trip to Iraq, Gets Shoe Surprise

In the twilight of his presidency, President Bush made a surprise trip to Iraq today--and he had to deal with a journalist who threw shoes at him. Seriously. During a press conference of Iraqi Prime Minister Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Al Baghadadia reporter Muntadar al-Zaidi, seated 12 feet away, threw both his shoes--one right after the other--at President Bush while yelling "This is the end!" See the video:

According to the Washington Post, "The incident lent an air of chaos and farce to a trip intended to highlight improving security conditions in the war-torn country." The WaPo also reported Zaidi, who was eventually tackled by a "security agents...and removed" from the room," was kidnapped by Shiite militiamen last year: "Throwing a shoe at someone is considered the worst possible insult in Iraq, and is meant to show extreme disrespect and hatred towards someone."

Bush, who was not injured, seemed to shrug it off, "All I can report is it is a size 10."

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By Jen Chung in News on December 14, 2008 3:12 PM

Comments [rss]

jpeditor

Zodak: "i always hear about dubya having the lowest approval rating & i think, "there can't be anyone left who actually approves of... "

Yeah,every time you squeak it;' Bush's fault...

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/congressional_performance/congressional_performance

Congressional Performance

Approval of Congress Drops to Single Digits Again

Friday, December 19, 2008

Approval of Congress' job performance is down to single digits again for the first time since early September.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters found that only nine percent (9%) give Congress good or excellent ratings, while 54% give the legislature poor marks. Just one-out-of-50 voters (2%) think Congress is doing an excellent job.

The last time the ratings were this low was on September 9. In late November, 12% gave Congress good or excellent ratings. This is now the fifth time congressional ratings have fallen below 10% since June 1.

Since the election when Democrats grew their majorities in both the House and Senate, Congress has been in the news struggling unsuccessfully to pass an unpopular bailout plan for the Big Three automakers.

Even only 14% of Democratic voters rate the performance of the Congress led by their own party as good or excellent, compared to five percent (5%) of Republicans and six percent (6%) of unaffiliated voters. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Democrats say the legislators are doing a poor job, and 69% of Republicans and 63% of unaffiliateds agree....

janderson281

This was hilarious. Too bad the asshole wasn't hit in the face. It just goes to show how fucking awful this president is. No other president has ever had shoes thrown at him at a press conference. It would have good if they were golf shoes with sharp spikes. Fuck Bush. That fucking asshole cannot be gone soon enough!!!

microdot

Duck Duck Bush!

r1b2

How fitting, an Iraqi is able to toss sweaty shoes at him. Fitting coda to this administration.

JRod5417

He ducked that shoe so well you'd think he got special training for such an occasion! Too bad it missed.

robingee

Seriously, he ducked like a ninja. Must be from all those years of dodging questions and responsibility!

RevWaldo

If Eddie Murphy's mom was throwin' that shoe it would've connected!

tingo

I can't stand GW.

But big ups for the amazingly good reflexes. He pwned that!

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

Finally, Iraq gave up its weapons of destructions. Mission Accomplished

zodak

i always hear about dubya having the lowest approval rating & i think, "there can't be anyone left who actually approves of this loser"

but people like scola91660 & jpeditor exist.

Gothamist_Cynic

http://bushftw.ytmnd.com/

sadpanda

ditto on the secret service -- these guys are supposed to take a bullet for him, and they can't even manage to take a shoe?

NannyState

WooHoo! Our arab bruthas keepin' it real in da 'raq! Clueless, meet Shoeless.

SeasTooFarToReach

Glad I'm not the only one that wished one of the shoes had hit him! It would have been the best thing ever!

If I had been the shoe throwing journalist I would have thrown the second shoe to the puppet standing next to his left.

I saw in the news that he yelled: this is for the mothers, daughters, sons of iraq... or something in the likes of it.

fakenewyorker

^cuckoo cuckoo

jpeditor

The hell with what would have happened to that "journalist" if Saddam was still in power. He should try it in ANY ARAB COUNTRY.

As a matter of fact, you people should try BLOGGING YOUR ASININE COMMENTS about any arab leaders FROM AN ARAB COUNTRY.

And as for the "illegal war" you all should listen to what EVERY MAJOR DEMOCRAT SAID ABOUT TAKING OUT SADDAM OVER WMD YEARS BEFORE AND AFTER BUSH TOOK OFFICE.

BEFORE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwqh4wQPoQk&feature=related

AFTER: http://www.freedomagenda.com/iraq/wmd_quotes.html

Millions of Iraqis freed, and all you leftist pinheads can do is sympathize with some scumball jihadi with a camera.

S.D.

Wow, the Secret Service was asleep at the Switch here!

Spiritof76, As much as I can't stand Pres. GW, what else could he do other than Duck and Smirk??

He'll be peddling his "FREEDOM!!!!" BS for years before he comes close to admitting he completely F__ked this up...

matthew gannon

Nouri al-Maliki seemed totally unfazed by the first shoe.

Any pictures of Dana Perino's black eye?

scola91660

"Typical. Instead of trying to address what had the guy angry, he laughs it off".

What do you expect him to do, bonehead? Start a dialogue.

Mikefrombklyn

Secret service is way slow. This guy got two shoes off before they got to him.

Jen S

^Oh please. His actions have caused just about the whole world to hate us. He's gotten thousands of people killed. He's leaving office with the country in the worst shape its been in for over 70 years. A shoe in the face is the least of what he deserves.

scola91660

Imagine if the journalist had done that to Saddam Hussein when he was president of Iraq. He would have been taken out back and shot immediately. It's a shame that Iraq had to suffer for him to have the freedom to do that and live.

Kevin Walsh

He's not that good a shot. A few years ago I was waiting for a bus at Nostrand and Avenue R in Brooklyn and a guy sailed an apple out the window while the bus was moving and got me right on the noggin. I wish the Knicks had signed him.

www.forgotten-ny.com

Ethan

Helen Thomas should have done this years ago.

Guest

Well, hey - looks like the Iraq War WAS successful - we've empowered the Iraqis to do what no American has had the balls to.

babyhitler

this is the fucking video of the fucking decade. It pretty sums up what the people of the universe think of bush

KosherPickle

"Sorry chief,it missed me by that much"

Get Smart lol

Roger McDowell

He should have then thrown his camera and anything else available. Bush deserves everything he's going to get for the rest of his god awful life.

Sinchy

I love how he ducked! He is like Walker Texas Ranger.

virgil

I wish violence on no one, so I'm glad the guy missed, but I'm glad Bush has had to experience, however momentarily, the bizarre chaos that results from everything he does.

Cacheton

Nooooo, why did he miss! Can you imagine what a gif with Bush getting hit in the face with a shoe would look like? Arghhhhh!

Champion

If I had been in Muntadar al-Zeidi's shoes, I would've tagged Dubya.

Spirit of 76

Typical. Instead of trying to address what had the guy angry, he laughs it off. Just like he laughed off all our problems for the last eight years. Pity it was just shoes. Although it would have been a lot more satisfying if it had hit him and wiped that smug smirk off his face.