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Last night in the State of the Union address President Obama acknowledged his wife regarding her participation in combating childhood obesity. She remained seated while everyone around her stood and applauded. I don’t care about her mouthing the words “sit down”, my question is about when to stand or stay seated. My boyfriend said that after a few moments she should have stood up too, very briefly, and then sit back down in effort to stop the ovation. I think that it was fine for her to stay in her seat. I know that I am not likely to find myself in this situation but because of the disaggreement I have with my boyfriend I am curious what would have been the proper thing to do.
I agree that this was a bit of an awkward moment. My impression was that the First Lady, perhaps feeling appropriately modest, wanted to minimized the attention that she was getting. Despite the genteel nature of this emotion she may have been well served by making some gesture of acknowledgment. Lynn’s idea about a half rise from her chair makes sense to me. This would have both acknowledged the applause and indicated that she was not interested in basking in it at that moment. If only we could all go back and do just the right thing at just the right moment. After the Joe Wilson outburst at the last address to congress I was glad that we got through the night as smoothly as we did.
Nancy, I agree with you. Even a halfhearted rise from her chair with a small waive would have sufficed.