Ali and Dope-a-Dope

At the White House, Prizes for 14 Champs

“The Greatest of All Time” stole the show when President Bush bestowed the Medal of Freedom on ...10 others in a White House ceremony yesterday. Bush, who appeared almost playful, fastened the heavy medal around Muhammad Ali's neck and whispered something in the heavyweight champion's ear. Then, as if to say “bring it on,” the president put up his dukes in a mock challenge.

Ali, 63, who has Parkinson's disease and moves slowly, looked the president in the eye -- and, finger to head, did the “crazy” twirl for a couple of seconds.

The room of about 200, including Cabinet secretaries, tittered with laughter. Ali, who was then escorted back to his chair, made the twirl again while sitting down. And the president looked visibly taken aback, laughing nervously.Was Ali making a political statement? In his remarks about the fighter, Bush ... did not mention Ali's very public opposition to the Vietnam War, which led the prizefighter to lose his boxing license for three years when he refused to serve in the Army.

As opposed to the Chimp's National Guard non-service.

Ali, dressed in a suit, barely cracking a smile, received the loudest and most sustained applause of the day. And the always quotable man who said “I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong” and “I am the onliest of boxing's poet laureates” delivered the most striking moment without speaking a word.

Still the Greatest.

Or was the boxing legend living up to another trait the president noted, his penchant for psyching out the challenger?

“Clearly, the president said a statement to Muhammad that he found humorous and his response was the 'crazy sign,' at which the president laughed,” said Craig Bankey, a spokesman for Ali. The Presidential Medal of Honor is the polite, distinguished and altogether restrained grand dame to the Academy Awards, Emmys, Grammys, Tonys, et al. It's no popularity contest -- no million-dollar Oscar campaigns to wage, no Nielsen ratings to measure, no SoundScan or iTunes to track album sales and online downloads. Simply, elegantly, it is a way of saying that, yes, kind sir and gentle lady, you've made an indelible mark. Thank you.

I've seen Ali at press conferences and events many times, and he often does the 'pretend spar' with people he respects. Obviously, the Chimp is not one of those. Perhaps all those rabid Republicans calling Ali a traitor because of Vietnam came to mind while walking up to receive a medal from the hands of a real draft-dodger chicken hawk. Ali may have difficulty speaking, but his mind is still sharp. Notice also the left hand of Ali: ready to uppercut if necessary.

As found on atrios, and elsewhere.
Video at Crooks and Liars