{"id":20426,"date":"2017-03-18T00:01:53","date_gmt":"2017-03-18T00:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=20426"},"modified":"2017-03-18T00:01:53","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T00:01:53","slug":"whats-wrong-with-a-handshake-mr-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=20426","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s wrong with a handshake, Mr. President?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Trump\u200b appears to ignore requests for a handshake with Angela Merkel\u200b\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uLfukuEutIU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There are awkward moments, and then there are events such as what we witnessed today at the White House.<\/p>\n<p>German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid a visit to Donald J. Trump. The two of them posed for cameras. Someone yelled out about a handshake. The president didn&#8217;t offer his hand. The chancellor looked puzzled after she had asked for one from her colleague and host.<\/p>\n<p>Hmmm.<\/p>\n<p>Strange moment, indeed.<\/p>\n<p>Hockey players shake hands after beating each other up during their matches; Little Leaguers shake hands after games, sometimes cheering <em>&#8220;Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate &#8230; ?&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Gentlemen extend a hand to ladies. It can be interpreted, perhaps, as a game. Trump, though, doesn&#8217;t play games &#8230; apparently.<\/p>\n<p>I heard about this moment and my thoughts flashed back immediately to something similar that occurred in 1990 right here in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Republican gubernatorial nominee Clayton Williams was running against Democratic nominee Ann Richards. The two of them were fighting each other viciously.<\/p>\n<p>Then they appeared together at an event. I cannot remember its precise nature. Afterward, with candidates sharing a head table, Richards extended her hand to Williams &#8212; who promptly refused to take it; he called her a &#8220;liar.&#8221; He walked away.<\/p>\n<p>Commentators said at the time Williams committed a cardinal sin among gentlemanly Texans by refusing to take a lady&#8217;s hand and it likely\u00a0helped contribute to Richards defeating Williams in that year&#8217;s election for Texas governor.<\/p>\n<p>The president of the United States need not worry about German voters should he decide to seek re-election in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>But, geez, Mr. President. Show some manners.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are awkward moments, and then there are events such as what we witnessed today at the White House. German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid a visit to Donald J. Trump. The two of them posed for cameras. Someone yelled out about a handshake. The president didn&#8217;t offer his hand. The chancellor looked puzzled after she &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=20426\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">What&#8217;s wrong with a handshake, Mr. President?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[383,395,1424],"class_list":["post-20426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-news","tag-angela-merkel","tag-ann-richards","tag-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20427,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20426\/revisions\/20427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}