That Merkel Massage

I have one more thing to say about the Rat Pack video, namely that what’s going on in those few minutes onstage is an example of what was so important about those guys in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Frank and Sammy and Dean were friends. They were the pop edge of something that had been happening for decades in hip jazz circles, I mean black and white musicians getting along, but their camaraderie was real. That mattered a lot before the Civil Rights Bill. Now ad corporations try to promote racial harmony by putting black and white people in the same commercial, but that’s just pallid propaganda by comparison, and everybody knows it. The Rat Pack helped lead the U.S. out of Jim Crow by example. All the racial jokes in that routine sound rough to refined, 21st-century ears, but the horsing around was a way of facing down a real problem, and it’s hard to come up with any musical act that fills the same role in America now.

When Bush freaked out Angela Merkel by giving her a quick shoulder massage at the G-8 summit earlier this month, I think he imagined himself as a joshing, roughhousing Sinatra, goosing his old buddy onstage. I don’t think he was flirting. I doubt he wanted to “demean” her. But obviously Merkel wasn’t in on the act. Bush thought he could be fraternal, deadpan, funny, and he couldn’t. This isn’t Merkel’s fault, any more than it’s the fault of some newfangled international regime of political correctness. It was never OK in diplomatic circles, and it shows the gulf between the mind of President Bush and the rest of Planet Earth.

     posted 28 July 2006 by Michael Scott Moore

  1. Bingo. Bango. Bongo. (To quote a golf term).

    You have to have context for the Rat Pack. If you look at it today, it’s just “insensitive,” but if you realize that even the fact these guys were friends, acted like brothers, and sold their shows out every night was HUGE.

    There is nothing corporate America has done lately that legetimately mimics, at least, that friendship. Lots of posers.

    (And here I am reminded of the SNL skit: “You are black and I am white, you’re blind as a bat, but I’ve got sight. You’re my amigo, negro, so let’s not fight.”)

    And the bongo is on Bush. You just don’t touch someone like that from behind and surprise them. But I think a point underplayed is how dumb he was that he did it this time when he knew he was on camera. They can blow off the other stuff because he didn’t realize it was recorded, but this was a photo op! Doh!

    e

    — E    Jul 28, 10:15 am    #

  2. I wonder if Merkel just looked stiff and a bit stressed out. But someone should have told Bush that she always looks that way. It means she gets things done.

    — Michael Scott Moore    Jul 28, 07:01 pm    #

  3. I’m with Eric. Maybe because I spent all those years studying aikido. You NEVER approach someone from behind that way, without any warning. I used to have to warn people not to make any sudden moves around me.

    — Indri    Jul 28, 08:15 pm    #

  4. Remixes of the great event here

    — Bowleserised    Jul 31, 07:48 am    #

  5. Why doesn’t html work in your comments section?

    http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2006/07/28/bush_rubs_merkel_up_the_wrong_way.html#more

    — Bowleserised    Jul 31, 07:48 am    #