COFFEE-CUP-GHAZI!
(updated)

Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit is outraged again:

A NEW LOW -- Obama's Salute to Marines -- Most Degrading Salute Ever to Men in Uniform

All right, show me. What was so terrible?



There's video, posted by the White House on Instagram:



And, of course, Fox Nation is piling on:



Disrespectful? The most degrading salute ever?

Is this not even in the running for the latter title?



Did Hoft or Fox Nation ever complain about that? Funny, I have no such recollection.

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And for the hundredth time, let's recall what Garry Wills told us in 2007:

We are reminded ... of the expanded commander in chief status every time a modern president gets off the White House helicopter and returns the salute of marines.

That is an innovation that was begun by Ronald Reagan. Dwight Eisenhower, a real general, knew that the salute is for the uniform, and as president he was not wearing one. An exchange of salutes was out of order.

Also recall what David Alexander of Reuters wrote in 2008:

Reagan's decision raised eyebrows at the time....

John Kline, then Reagan's military aide and now a Minnesota congressman, advised him that it went against military protocol for presidents to return salutes.

Kline said in a 2004 op-ed piece in The Hill that Reagan ultimately took up the issue with Gen. Robert Barrow, then commandant of the Marine Corps.

Barrow told Reagan that as commander in chief of the armed forces, he was entitled to offer a salute -- or any sign of respect he wished -- to anyone he wished, Kline wrote....

So Reagan just made up a bit of faux-military protocol, and now it simply has to be done, especially by a Democratic president, and woe betide the president if it's not done to the exacting standards of right-wing bloggers.

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ALSO: Here's my 2012 post on Obama's treasonous cellphone salute, and my 2013 post on Obama's treasonous failure to salute.

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UPDATE: From ABC's Note:

Some are calling it the "latte salute." ...

The unusual gesture appeared in an Instagram video posted by the White House on social media....

The video drew ridicule from some Instagram users, who saw the unorthodox salute as "un-presidential."

"Hopefully it was just a slip by this President," one user posted.

Others saw unnecessary nitpicking in the criticism.

"People are dying from disease, abuse or even hunger," another user commented on the video. "Priorities." ...

At least the Note (which hasn't been written by Mark Halperin for many years, by the way) informs us that this tradition goes back only as far as Reagan. But we're also told Obama drinks tea, not coffee. (Commie!)

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AND: Via Twitchy, I learn the precise reason why comparing the Obama and Bush salures is apples and oranges:

Salute photo proves continued #BushDerangementSyndrome One is adorable. One is disrespectful, rude and dismissive. pic.twitter.com/hUxQ2eeCIW

— ★♥ Harriet Baldwin (@HarrietBaldwin) September 23, 2014

Got it? Obama's salute was not adorable. Therefore: treason!

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PLUS: It was called a "latte" (even though the president drinks tea) because that's what the National Republican Congressional Committee decided to call it ("Watch Obama Salute This Marine With a Latte In His Hand"). Because lattes are just so, y'know, metrosexual.