Bush doesn't know when the gloves are supposed to be off

[Kellanved]

Directly after his landing in Bratislava, the US President stumbled into a faux pas: instead of taking of his gloves, as directed by protocol, he greeted his Slovak host in full gear. Protocol experts are suggesting that Bush never was briefed about European customs.

Bratislava - Was the frosty European climate to blame for it? With his apparently unintended lapse, Bush caused many frowns at the end of his trip.
While he did shake hands with his Slovak colleague Ivan Gasparovic and his Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda in a convincing fashion, he did so without taking off his black gloves. This counts as a clear breach of etiquette. It was said that this was the first time for such a blooper to happen in Slovakia.
...

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,440265,00.jpg
http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,343433,00.html

[illflem]

1. Probably thought he'd contact AIDS from sweaty Slovak hands

[cthrumatrix]

10. for the record - it's in the 30's in Bratislava --- it's not that cold

[Enquiringkitty]

2. Bush is a massive idiot. Did he remember to kick the cow dung off

his boots before stepping on any more toes?

[Fridays Child]

3. Looks cold. It's a good thing Pickles had that tablecloth...

...to keep herself warm.

[Demit]

4. Apparently unintended? Somehow I doubt it.

I think all these things are intentional slights. Calling a head of state by his first name in a formal setting, Cheney dressed in that awful ski jacket at a formal event--I believe they are quite intentionally showing their contempt for etiquette and international customs. They are a putrid bunch of know-nothings. God, they're hateful.

[neweurope]

7. I'm convinced all of this is intentional, also. He TOOK off his gloves

in Germany or it would have been reported. The insults are carefully measured out depending on how important the countries in question are to the Bushistas.

Your First Lady left her gloves on, too.

----------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Karenina]

11. Charming.

Calling Dale Carnegie, please pick up the white courtesy phone...

[purduejake]

5. It's because he has the blood of 100,000+ Iraqis on his hands.

[malaise]

6. Royalty never

take off their gloves...get real.

[DemBones DemBones]

8. By Jove, I think you're right! nt

[spooked]

13. Must be that Royalty Thing

[necso]

9. Don't rule out

that all (or at least most) of this stuff is deliberate.

The *'s might not want to look like the members of the elite, you know, the elite master-class that they belong to.

What better way to look like "regular" folks than to violate some (hoity-toity) rules of etiquette -- with the expected complaints in the European press making their way back here (those effete Europeans and all that).

Expect duplicity. Expect everything to be stage-managed. Expect the other side to be thinking a few moves ahead.

Members of the ruling class are often stupid and crass -- but they are often also schooled their entire lives in how to exploit others -- and for some, like *, it also comes naturally.

And it looks like a piece of carpet to me.

[flordehinojos]

12. If i were Slovakian PM Dzurinda, I wouldn't be too much offended at Bush's

keepin the gloves on while shaking hands with me ... because, I REALLY WOULDN'T WANT TO SHAKE THE HAND OF SUCH A COLD BLOODED KILLER LIKE BUSH.

[Kellanved]

14. A minor addition:

From Spiegel's international page:

...
Faux Paws
Central Europe, when they say politicians have to press flesh, they mean it very literally. Custom dictates that you always greet someone with an un-gloved hand, no matter the weather. When US President George W. Bush didn't remove his warm leather gloves while meeting Slovak diplomats upon his arrival in Bratislava on Wednesday night, he created quite a public stir. The protocol malfunction -- while offensive to those who were proffered the leather encased hand -- may not have been nearly as big a deal if it weren't for the fact that the reception was being broadcast live on national television. It's understandable that in temperatures only just above freezing that the president and his wife would want to keep their fingers warm (Laura remained be-gloved, too), but some protocol officer should have warned them in advance. "I don't know whether this is usual in the United States, but it is not in our countries. They may have not been informed about Central European habits," Deana Lutherova, a Slovak protocol expert, told the Czech news agency CTK. Still, on the grand scale of diplomatic faux pas, this hardly rates alongside, say, vomiting on a prime minister and then falling over. Bush Jr. continues to do his daddy proud. (12:09 p.m. CET)
...

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,343445,00.html

[Bouncy Ball]

15. What does he care?

I mean, really? This is a guy who pre-emptively attacked a country that did nothing to us and posed no threat to us, causing the death of thousands and the destruction of homes, businesses, the entire FUBAR-ing of a country, and anyone thinks he's gonna give a rat shit about protocol or custom in another country?

This is a guy who belongs to a party that has been busy making fun of other countries for not joining us in our endless butcherfest wars.

He's a turd. Plain and simple. A TURD.

I just thought about something. I have little to no training on international diplomatic protocol, but I just realized if I were being introduced to someone and I had gloves on, my FIRST instinct would be to hastily remove my glove before shaking their hand.