Nice move, Mr. President!
 

The video: BBC NEWS | World | Shoes hurled at President Bush

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Shoes thrown at Bush on Iraq trip

A surprise visit by US President George Bush to Iraq has been overshadowed by an incident in which two shoes were thrown at him during a news conference.

An Iraqi journalist was wrestled to the floor by security guards after he called Mr Bush "a dog" and threw his footwear, just missing the president.

The soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture.

During the trip, Mr Bush and Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki signed the new security agreement between their countries.

The pact calls for US troops to leave Iraq in 2011 - eight years after the 2003 invasion that has in part defined the Bush presidency.

Speaking just over five weeks before he hands over power to Barack Obama, Mr Bush also said the war in Iraq was not over and more work remained to be done.

His previously unannounced visit came a day after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates told US troops the Iraq mission was in its "endgame".

In the middle of the news conference with Mr Maliki, a reporter stood up and shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," before hurtling his shoes at Mr Bush, narrowly missing him.

"All I can report is a size 10," Mr Bush said according to the Associated Press news agency.

The shoe thrower was taken away by security guards and the news conference continued.

Correspondents called it a symbolic incident. Iraqis threw shoes and used them to beat Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad after his overthrow.

LOL, love the "size 10" response.

At least it proves the Iraqis have embraced democracy.....That never would have happened under Sadam :)

At least our president has reflexes like a cat, he must have been a hell of a dodge ball player.

Good thing he wasn't wearing clogs!

That's awesome!

Did the secret service move onto Obama already? Or do they have to take a bullet for the president, but not a shoe? :)

That's kinda awesome. The whole exchange. Bush and how he dodged them so well and the guy and well..yeah.

The fact that he got the second shoe off is pretty impressive work.

OMG, Bush looked like he was ready to give the guy another crack at it.

He' the fastest shoe in the Middle East.

It seems like when he started yelling, Bush was the only one to react.

Dodging the shoe was possibly his biggest accomplishment as President.

Hella reflexes by both the journalist and the Prez.

In a few days we'll see website popping up saying it would have been impossible to get two shoes off in that amount of time, that there obviously had to be other shoe-men positioned behind the sandy knoll.

ETA to first web game where you throw shoes at the president .... 10 minutes and counting ;)

Very nimble move. Pretty amazing first throw by the journalist too. Shoes are tough to throw. I'd imagine my first few throws would have sailed high or embeded in the podium. He must have practiced to get off two pretty accurate throws like that.

Not quite as good as his dad booting on the Japanese prime minister, but still a nice way to go out on a high note.

Then again, are we sure he was actually an Iraqi journalist? Maybe he's just a fan of the Baghdad Tigers and thought that Bush had just been named the team's new head coach.

Is it me or is the guy at the end, in the green and red, holding a shiv?

I cant tell

Quite. It does seem to my untrained eye, that Bush's head went BACK and to the LEFT.

The secret service guys seemed to be a little on the slow side here.

Who throws a shoe?

Honestly.

That's the greatest thing I've ever seen.

yeah, no way that piece of shit should've been able to get off that 2nd shot off so quickly. black eye for our Secret Service.

Too funny, but where the hell was the secret service at?

Proof that it's a conspiracy.

The guy who knocks him down seems to be holding a notebook or computer.

Pretty nutty that he even got the first one off, you would think as soon as someone stands when they are not supposed to that either he or the president would be tackled by a secret service agent about two seconds later. Good thing the president (whatever his faults) has ninja-like reflexes.

Yeah, really... talk about agility in your chief executive.

Seriously? It took us this long to get this post? That was instantly my first thought :D

SI

My grandma did. The older she got, the more creative she had to get to whoop us when we were bad. If we were farther than arm's reach, she'd chuck it at us, if we were close, she'd take it off and whack us with it.

I got to give Dubya some props on those moves. The only thing that would have made it better is if he threw a shoe back at the guy.

now, the excellent dodging by our President is admirable.

but what if he caught the shoes? where does this place him in the pantheon of awesomeness? i'm being serious. how awesome would that have been if he caught the shoes?

Even better, he catches the shoes and then crushes them into ashes in his hands.

Even better, he tries them on. Says thanks! and walks out.

No, that would have been this man:



SI

Is our economy really that bad that we're taking shoes the Iraqis don't even want? ;)

SI

Also,



SI

L1 button : Bush answers questions dodges if you press L1 in conjuction with the left stick.

L2 button : Activates shoe time.

L3 button : Bush crouches

Well, I was referring to this:

YouTube - who throws a shoe (austin powers)

Watch the Iraqi counterpart.
He doesn't even realize the first one has been thrown, and makes a weak feeble attempt at swatting the second one....

I found his pathetic swipe at the second shoe to the funniest part of the whole thing. Clearly he is part of the conspiracy.

It is time for everyone to apologize to Bush. He wasn't surprised at all that the guy had two of those things.

He would just have to look at the shoe to have it disintegrate.

Those secret service guys are gonna catch some serious shit. They looked slower than roy wiliams trying to cover a mediocre wideout.

This makes me feel much better about President Obama. In a world where dodging shoes is becoming more important every day, who would you rather have behind the podium, Obama or McCain? I think obviously the answer is Obama.

Hey "W"... if that President thing doesn't work out for you... maybe you could step into the ring with Oscar De La Hoya. I hear he's looking for just one more big payday.

"Let's Get Ready to Stumble..."

You know, it's kinda like looking into the Eye of Sauron. I'm crippled with fear just looking at this picture.

The best part about this whole thing is that damn smirk Bush has on his face.

He is basically chuckling at the guy. Bush had some great moments and this was one of them.

Don't forget the time he rubbed the PM's back from Germany. That was great as well.

Obama would have turned that shoe into a unicorn and it would have flown around the land, bringing peace and hope to the people.