US President Barack Obama and Arizona’s Republican Governor Jan Brewer appeared to get into a verbal argument just moments after Air Force One touched down in Phoenix today.
According to reporters at the scene, Gov Brewer could be seen pointing her finger at the president during their brief exchange, before Mr Obama walked away.
Gov Brewer later said the president had been upset about a passage in her recent book in which she described a meeting between the two at the White House.
“He was a little disturbed about my book, Scorpions for Breakfast,” said Gov Brewer, who was there to welcome Mr Obama to Arizona.
Asked which passage of the book he had taken issue with, she suggested Mr Obama felt he had not been portrayed cordially in one of the excerpts.
“I said I was sorry he felt that way but I didn’t get my sentence finished,” she said. “Anyway, we’re glad he’s here. I’ll regroup.”
Mr Obama was in Arizona as part of a three-day, five-state tour to push his economic agenda first outlined in yesterday’s State of the Union address.
A White House official later released a statement describing its version of events.
“The governor handed the President a letter and said she was inviting him to meet with her,” it said. “The President said he’d be glad to meet with her again, but did note that after their last meeting, a cordial discussion in the Oval Office, the governor inaccurately described the meeting in her book.”
At this contentious time of sensitivity regarding “class” one hesitates to use the term except on those occassions it is clear one can not avoid it. Although many equate “class” with economics, the term also applies to an individual’s taste, grace, manners, and basic respect shown to others. One of the first things taught to young children is how to express their anger without aggressive or impolite behavior. Pointing one’s finger in another’s face, regardless of how one attempts to justify it, is never something of which an individual with “class” would be capable. My very young grandchildren already understand that exhibiting such aggression is the trait of an individual who lacks “class.” We need not know who provoked whom; the disgraceful picture tells the entire story in regards to who has and who lacks that desireable virtue, “class.”
May I call upon every Arizonan – regardless of age, gender, political party, race, or economic class – to send a letter of apology to our President for the disrespect shown him by the womyn who, alas, we sent to the airport to represent our state. That she does not represent the gracious hospitality we would expect from her in welcoming the President of the United States of America upon his arrival in our homestate must be expressed for the world to acknowledge.
Let nigeria leaders learn 4rm my humble and loyal mentor Mr Barrack Ussain Obama