Origin of the ‘Terrorist Fist Jab’

July 28th, 2008 at 01:34pm Aaron Chambers

Ever wonder how the silly characterization of Barack Obama’s dap with his wife Michelle as a “terrorist fist jab” got its start?

A Slate.com political writer takes credit for dragging the phrase into the main stream …

The morning after Obama locked up the nomination, I was writing a “Trailhead” item that mocked the media’s difficulty in figuring out what to call the now famous gesture. “Fist-pound,” “knuckle-bump,” and “fist-to-fist thumbs up” were among the funnier examples, but one of them—”Hezbollah-style fist jab”—was particularly risible. It came from the Web site for Human Events, a hard-right weekly. Unfortunately, I failed to note that its provenance was not the magazine itself but a reader comment posted below an unrelated column by Cal Thomas. I linked the phrase to the column but didn’t explain that the words weren’t Thomas’.

And in this Internet Age, it takes just moments (sometimes less) for nonsense to spread.

When I realized the confusion I’d helped cause, I posted a correction. But it was too late. Liberal bloggers from all over had already seized on the phrase. Time and Politico misreported that the words were Thomas’.

And then it was in the hands of a reckless talking head at Fox News. E.D. Hill wondered aloud whether the Obama dap might qualify as a “terrorist fist jab.”

Naturally, Hill didn’t say who or what she was characterizing. She didn’t even bother elaborating. She just plopped the phrase on the national television screen, as if it were totally valid. (She later apologized.)

In related (and just as thoughtful) news, a Tribune reporter wonders whether Obama may have patted his wife on the tush the same night as the notorious fist bump.

Entry Filed under: Barack Obama