Drudge dredges up Obama middle-finger conjecture; Punditty dredges up Bush flipping off aide

With a day to go before Election Day, right-wing Web site The Drudge Report has taken to focusing on body language. More specifically, middle-finger language.

Drudge, who promoted the racist face-carving hoax perpetrated by troubled McCain volunteer Ashley Todd in Pennsylvania as if it were verified fact, is apparently pulling out all the cheap stops to persuade voters that Obama is somehow being disrespectful to McCain by scratching his face with his middle finger during a speech.

Yesterday, two days out from Election Day, Drudge trumpeted the notion that the San Francisco Chronicle had somehow hidden a January interview with the Illinois senator. Today, Gov. Sarah PalinSarah Palin suggested that the newspaper had somehow kept the interview from surfacing. In fact, the newspaper promoted the Obama interview, and it has been available in its entirety at http://www.sfgate,com since January.

Punditty isn't sure if Drudge ever linked to this video of then-Gov. George W. BushGeorge W. Bush of Texas flipping off aide Karen Hughes in Austin during the 1990s, but objective observers might reasonably wonder how it would have affected the outcome of the 2000 presidential election if voters had seen it before Election Day. Or the 2004 election, for that matter. Most likely, all the rightwing media outlets would have agreed with Bush that is was nothing more than a "one-fingered victory salute."

At any rate, readers are invited to relive the middle-fingered magic of our soon to be ex-president in this short clip. At the risk of sounding too flip, millions upon millions of Americans salute you, too, Mr. President.

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