Jeralyn at TalkLeft: The unity candidate unmasked.
AP: (Photo --J. Scott Applewhite) . . . . . Clinton, clad in scarlet, crossed the aisle between their seats on the House floor and reached out a hand to greet Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Democratic icon whose endorsement she had courted only to lose it to Obama. Kennedy shook her hand while Obama, wearing a dark suit and standing between the two, turned away. . . .
Taylor Marsh: Evidently, Hillary Clinton is not "likable enough" after all.
The Swamp: [Obama] went out of his way to greet as many House members as possible and walked halfway across the chamber to greet members of the Supreme Court, the president's cabinet, the military joint chiefs. That made what happened next even more striking. Obama returned to stand by his seat next to Sen. Edward Kennedy who endorsed Obama today in a widely watched event that reverberated across the political world.
As Clinton approached, Kennedy made sure to make eye contact and indicated he wanted to shake her hand. Clinton leaned towards Kennedy over a row of seats and Kennedy leaned in towards her. They shook hands.
Obama stood icily staring at Clinton during this, then turned his back and stepped a few feet away. Kennedy may've wanted to make peace with Clinton but Obama clearly wanted no part of that. The sense in the press gallery was that Obama didn't cover himself in glory. Someone even used the word "childish."
Pamela Leavey at Democratic Daily: Mr Unity Turns His Back on Opponent and Then Shakes the Hand of The Divider.
BAC at Yikes: It would appear that the "uniter" is not quite ready to ... well ... unite.
susanhu at MyDD: Obama was all smiles while he was chatting it up with George Bush before the SOTU (Photo).
Washington Times: When Mr. Bush entered the House chamber at 9:05, Mrs. Clinton stopped clapping after a few moments. Mr. Obama, however, clapped for almost the entire four minutes that Mr. Bush took to walk down the aisle.
WaPo: In other handshaking news, Bush shook Obama's hand after the speech but not Clinton's.
Darrell Prows at Dem Daily: What Obama seems to me to be on the verge of creating is an expectation among political newbie’s (of whatever age) that he can actually get something significant done quickly and the Republicans tonight just flipped him a giant finger. Instead, he creates the image that political trench warfare is going to resemble a picnic basket, checkered ground cloth, and a wildflower meadow. To me that borders on false advertising and likely breeds the seeds of its own failure.
Hillary Clinton Gender Barack Obama News Democratic Primary SOTU Post Partisan Politics
