The Politics Of Kissing. Or Kissing-Up......

What's with all this political kissing???
War should be a thing of the past with all this "face sucking" going on.

I look around at our political figures and I see a very public display of affection.
A big "Political Love-In" if you will......

The Americans hate the French, but Chirac shows grace and civility to the first ladies of the United States...

Laura Bush, with affection.....


Condi, with some distance...

But with grace, and always the gentleman.
You have to love the French for the attitude, and the air they put on.
The world would be culturally defficient without their influence on history.



Many politicians like to blow a kiss to the crowd....

Kerry seems like he's trying to hold back from blowing chunks, but he blows a double kiss.


Others just go for a single.







Arafat Was A Real Man's Man....
Sure he can blow a kiss, but he was never ashamed to kiss another man:









(even after the rumors, there was no proof.... Everything was denied....)


But Arafat was willing to kiss the Pope:


And speaking of The Pope; (JP2)
He was compelled to kiss just about everything. Especially any tarmac he ended up disembarking onto. (and he disembarked a whole lot, he loved to travel)

He gets down in the United Kingdom;


He kisses the ground in Poland;


And he would have kissed your ground too, he was that kind of guy.........



He would put his lips upon the Bible, (of course...)

But he will also kiss the Quran;


He was truly "The People's Pope"......

It's his foot fetish (or obligation???) that I find strange..........



But it's not my religion, and I can't pass any judgement.
But in many ways, it makes me respect the man that much more.
(power and humility).........

John Paul II.......
I'm sure he'll go down in history as one of the true great Popes of any era.



Blair and Kerry get all puckered up, but those are not their wives.



And Rafsanjani was never a shy guy with the guys.


Bill Clinton would sometimes kiss the one he was supposed to be kissing,

But I won't even go into who else was on his kiss list, because Hillary can hold her own.

Vaclav Havel got his chance.


And Harry Caray just couldn't resist.


I'm not sure who this guy is??? But I'm sure she extricated herself just fine.



Putin will get in nice and close,


And the man does have a sensitive side,


I think he's holding his teddy bear because of insecurities over his wife's attraction to Laura???


But stand back Vlad, it looks like George has a pucker on his lips......



Now George W. is a whole new kettle of fish....

Sure he likes the ladies, both young and old.




But I think he was just going for media coverage and political points when he made a big show of kissing the HIV positive Princess of Zambia.



Margaret Spellings found out pretty fast.
If you want to work for "The Big Boss", you had better pucker up.


And who couldn't resist planting a peck on Condi..... She's just hot, and I hope she runs for President. (beauty and brawn in one small package)



But Bush likes the boys as well. And he's not afraid to plant one on a man.
Norm Coleman got one.

And so did Jim Mullen.


But what's the deal with Abdulla???
I hope Laura doesn't know, because it looks like a love affair.

They hold hands and take long walks together.




They get close........


And then the kiss.


Saudi Arabia has no military, and the United States has no oil.
It's a match made in heaven.


I think my favorite though has to be Ronnie and Nancy.

"Gotta go to work honey, there's a world to run".

Great post!
I laughed, I cried, I looked closely for cold sores.

Now thats some of the most horrid but classic photography that I have ever seen. Great post. Lots of herpes simplex there.....

[edit on 19-11-2005 by Mayet]

It's really my first attempt to create a decent thread in PTS and I find this section of the boards to be sooooo serious.

I thought this would bring a little levity to an area of ATS that needed to lighten up a little.
Perhaps it would have been better suited to the joke section of BTS, but what the hell, it has to do with politics.

I hope there's a place in the budgets of these peoples nations that cover lip balm and breath mints. Politics is a kissy kissy world....