Nothing To See Here

At first glance it looks like President Obama is trying to sneak a peek at the backside of some little seventeen year old while preparing to pose for pictures at the G-8 Summit. French President Nikolas Sarkozy seems to be enjoying Mr. Obama’s momentary lack of prudence. Right after all the news about high profile politicians showing their true character and ditching their wives to have trysts with younger women, it looks like Mr. Obama appears to be cut from the same cloth.

I saw the photo on the ABC News early Friday morning just before they cut to commercial. They promised to show more right after they come back from a station break. But their idea of “right after” means not until the very end of the program. And I dutifully stayed tuned.

When they did follow up, we were finally given the full motion video. It’s easy to look at this single still and paint an incomplete picture to make Mr. Obama look like a man with little respect for the fairer sex. But watching the video we see that this young woman didn’t even register on Mr. Obama’s conscious. What looks like a sneaky peek at her ass was actually a benign look at the steep steps to help another young lady with her footing as she descended the stairs. The sneer of confirmation on Mr. Sarkozy’s face is nothing but a smile inspired from some joke shared between the two men and not just some improper locker room level of levity.

I was pissed at the way ABC News boosted their ratings at Mr. Obama’s expense. Anything to stoke a little controversy, even if it isn’t true.  The picture may say one thing.  But there never was anything to see here.