Last night, Hillary Clinton faced the ultimate test of any leader's mettle: the thrown shoe. Apparently, a woman managed to sneak past the ropes during Ms. Clinton's appearance in Las Vegas Thursday. Once in the crowd, she hurled the offending footwear at the presumptive 2016 Democrat presidential nominee.
You'll remember that, in 2008, the same thing happened to then President George W. Bush while he was holding a press conference in Baghdad.
The question, of course, is "who dodged it better?"
Let's go to the tape. First up, Mrs. Clinton:
Not bad. She handles herself pretty well, but there are some problems. First of all, she doesn't know what was thrown. Wondering if the shoe was a bat? Sorry, but that's an amateur move. Points deducted.
More importantly, she doesn't seem to realize that an object was headed her way until it was already past her noggin. If she'd been facing a better pitcher, she would have been in trouble.
Mrs. Clinton does recover fairly well, with a lame joke about solid waste management, but it's not enough to undo the damage.
Overall, we give Hillary a B-.
Now let's take a look at President Bush:
Wow! Now that's how it's done! We'll admit that the smaller room might make it easier to spot the shoe initially, but Bush comes away with big points for style, poise, grace and reaction time. Unlike Hillary, he's quick to recognize the threat. Plus, the shoe would have connected - right in the face - if the President wasn't so quick on the draw. This is clearly a solid 'A' effort.
So our winner is George W. Bush. Congratulations, Dubya. We'll add "artful shoe-dodging" to the list of things we miss about you.
