Siri Agrell
Globe and Mail Update Published on Friday, Jul. 11, 2008 10:37AM EDT Last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 8:16PM EDT
Finally, a sign that Barack Obama is not the second coming of cool.
In an interview on Access Hollywood, Barack Obama's 10-year-old daughter, Malia, made fun of her father this week for shaking hands with one of her friends.
"You really don't shake kids' hands that much, you shake adults' hands," she said.
The comment was reminiscent of another political low point in handshaking.
In 2006, recently elected Prime Minister Stephen Harper was shown on television shaking hands with his two children as he sent them off to school. The cold and awkward interaction was interpreted as yet another sign of the man's unyielding dorkiness and robotic tendencies.
It may be time for both men to say goodbye to shaking hands.
The gesture of greeting has been usurped by the hug, the double kiss, the dap, the chest bump and the high-five.
Compared with those cool hellos, shaking someone's hand now seems far too formal and old-fashioned. Why not just curtsy?
Mr. Obama, unlike the Prime Minister, can be excused as he did what may be the most public dap - or fist bump - of all time. The Democratic candidate for U.S. President tapped knuckles with his wife, Michelle, the night he won his party's nomination and brought the greeting to a new level of prominence.
U.S. President George W. Bush, too, has also updated his greetings. In May, he was photographed bumping chests with a U.S. Air Force Academy cadet at a graduation ceremony in Colorado.
If only he and Mr. Harper would bust that move at the G8.
Join the Discussion: