I’ve seen this a couple of times today. Chris Cillizza of The Fix claims it’s the “Best. Vine. Ever.”
Well, I dunno. But boy, is it painful to watch.
Somebody apparently thought it would just be inspiring as all get out for Democratic and Republican leaders to link arms and invoke Freedom Summer by singing “We Shall Overcome” together.
At least the Democrats knew the words, but none of them look like they’re on the happy side of miserable.
Frankly, though, the Vine version doesn’t do the incident justice. To see enough of it to understand just how awkward it was, complete with sound, you have to watch this clip from C-SPAN (the awkwardness starts at 21:00, and continues for a little over two minutes):
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I think they were holding hands to prevent anyone from stealing the others’ wallets.
What a despicable lot that is… American politics in a six second video. A bunch of career politicians putting on a phony show.
Then for their next song:
Cotton candy
sweet and low
let me see that tootsie roll
Stupid question: What’s the deal with crossing their arms – can’t they just hold hand like normal people?
I was wondering the same thing. Very awkward.
Crossing their fingers would have been too obvious.
Oh, and by the way — thanks for getting this, C-SPAN. But it’s a big disappointment that the camera wasn’t on the members when they were actually LINKING hands, which had to be even more awkward than what we’re able to see.
And why, oh why, after they saw what was going on, did the camera person swing the camera away from the members, late in the song? Could he or she just not stand to look any longer?
In looking back, embedding the C-SPAN video, I noticed something — Nancy Pelosi is somehow managing to stand farther away from her neighbors on both sides than anyone else is doing. Is she double-jointed, or something?
And in case you have trouble identifying any of the swayers, this page provides a handy guide…