In my opinion Obama has way bigger problems than saluting like a retard but I saw this and found it interesting.
Should U.S. presidents return military salutes or not?
Longstanding tradition requires members of the military to salute the president. The practice of presidents returning that salute is more recent — Ronald Reagan started it in 1981.
Reagan’s decision raised eyebrows at the time. Dwight Eisenhower, a former five-star general, did not return military salutes while president. Nor had other presidents.
John Kline, then Reagan’s military aide and now a Minnesota congressman, advised him that it went against military protocol for presidents to return salutes.
Kline said in a 2004 op-ed piece in
The Hill that Reagan ultimately took up the issue with Gen. Robert Barrow, then commandant of the Marine Corps.
Barrow told Reagan that as commander in chief of the armed forces, he was entitled to offer a salute — or any sign of respect he wished — to anyone he wished, Kline wrote, adding he was glad for the change.
http://blogs.reuters.com/talesfromthetrail/2008/12/24/to-salute-or-not-to-salute-thats-obamas-question/
Apparently Clinton was so shitty at it that 81 year old Reagan had to teach him to do it properly.
The old Army cavalry officer explained the hand had to come up slowly, like it was covered with honey, and then brought down sharply, definitively, as if it was covered with something far less pleasant. Clinton listened and soon the two men were standing in Reagan's office, practicing their salutes together.
The entire session lasted 70 minutes; Reagan awarded Clinton with a jar of jelly beans when it was over. The jar sat on Clinton's Oval Office desk for the next eight years.
http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2112249,00.html
