Rating Easley-Obama "fist bump"

Much is being made of Gov. Mike Easley's and Sen. Barack Obama's "fist bump" Monday at a campaign appearance at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh where the governor endorsed Obama -- Easley's second endorsement of the presidential campaign, after his earlier endorsement of Hillary Clinton didn't take.

The N&O has explored the "fist bump" here and commenters have pointed out that it isn't a fist bump -- it's really "giving dap," an old greeting among African Americans that some sources date to the Viet Nam war and some to an even earlier time. Click here for more. And some commenters have suggested that a white person can't give proper dap.

I don't know, but I don't think Monday's fist bump/giving dap episode really compares with some of Easley's more memorable public displays. That crash of a Hendricks Motorsports racing car (a Chevy) in 2003 while dressed up in a blue racing outfit was priceless, and then that attempted burnout or whatever it was when he stopped against a curb in a Jimmie Johnson race car near the Governor's Mansion in 2005 surely ranked No. 2 on the list of memorable gubernatorial appearances. Maybe that one should be called a "curb bump." Or "giving curb."