It's Mr. Steinbrueck's middle finger right there on the front page of the magazine of a large German paper.
The candidate of Germany's second largest political party after Ms. Merkel's CDU made the cover of SZ Magazin with a fully extended middle finger.
The nation is stunned, and the debate is on: has the man landed a coup or is he insulting the voters?
Our personal reaction first: we do not feel insulted, we laughed. The photo with the finger is also in very tasteful black and white, which we feel is very important.
Had it been in color, we might be less forgiving. Who wants to see a large pinkish object on the front page of a mag? Kudos to the photographer!
No matter what your feeling about the image is, the lagging candidate certainly gets publicity out of it, and the Germans get an opportunity to show some emotion in this most boring election campaign ever.
Plus, who are we to complain about cultural cross-fingering?
Yesterday's Daily Show showed a segment of three American politicians on a visit to Egypt, with Michelle Bachmann in the role of the middle finger.
While this blog post may help to popularize Mr. S.'s middle finger, the fact is that German politics continue to be less obnoxious, less in your face, or - given the finger - less up your's than than the stunts some of our very finest pull all the time.
Help us get that middle finger cover on this week's Wait Wait, Don't Tell me on NPR!
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