Hillary Clinton became another politician who faced an unusual form of public protest. During her lecture at Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, a shoe was hurled at the former U.S. Secretary of State.
The woman, who threw the shoe at Clinton, was arrested. The motives of her action have not been specified yet. The victim of the attack has not suffered and accepted the incident with humor.
"What was that a bat? Is that a bat? Is that somebody throwing something at me? Is that part of Cirque du Soleil?" Clinton was saying as the woman who threw the shoe was walking out of the room.
Hillary Clinton, as well as Vice President Joe Biden, are considered most likely candidates for the Democratic Party's U.S. presidential election to be held in 2016. They have not officially announced their plans yet.
The "custom" of shoe-hurling came to contemporary politics from the Middle East, where such an action is considered to be a manifestation of complete disrespect and contempt. The first Western politician, who had to duck from a shoe flying in his direction, was George W. Bush. The "attack" against then-U.S. President was committed by correspondent of Egyptian TV channel Al-Baghdadi, Al-Muntadhar Zaidi. The journalist threw both of his shoes at Bush, but missed. For his action, the journalist had to go to jail.
The list, which now includes Hillary Clinton, has Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, former president of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Iran's ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and even the founder of shoe-throwing himself, Muntadhar Zaidi.