It's not clear what was in the coffee cup President Obama held earlier this week when the sunglass-wearing commander in chief offered a beverage-assisted salute to Marines as he disembarked Marine One in New York City.
Whatever it was, it was hot enough to melt the Internet.
The White House released a video clip of the salute Tuesday — Obama bringing his right hand to his forehead without ditching the drink — on its Instagram page. That initial clip had nearly 2,600 comments as of Wednesday afternoon, easily better than the five next-most-popular images and videos combined. A photo of Obama presenting the Medal of Honor posted Sept. 15 garnered less than 150 responses.
The story mushroomed from there, with some reports blasting the president for his "insulting excuse" of a salute, others weighing in with clever headlines — "Semper Latte" and "Starbucks Salute" led the early voting — and commenters from all corners taking shots at Obama and one another.
"He isn't required to salute, but either don't do it at all or do it with respect. Half-assed is where the disrespect is," one commenter wrote on Marine Corps Times' Facebook page, responding to a write-up of the salute on the paper's Battle Rattle blog, which had slightly more comments than the official Instagram video garnered.
"THIS shows his view on the military. He could care less and looks down on them," said another.
"Bull[expletive]," said a third.
As with many controversial social-media topics, the discussions attached to most accounts of the salute descended into partisan warfare. But unlike other hotly debated instances of alleged protocol violations, there's no rulebook that covers the president's salute.
A recent tradition
Reports point to Ronald Reagan as the first president to return the salute — a gesture that served a useful purpose.
"I was told presidents weren't supposed to return salutes, so I didn't, but this made me feel a little uncomfortable," he wrote in his autobiography, "An American Life."
"Normally, a person offering a salute waits until it is returned, then brings down his had. Sometimes, I realized, the soldier, sailor, [M]arine or airman giving me the salute wasn't sure when he was supposed to lower his hand.
"Initially, I nodded and smiled and said hello and thought that would bring down the hand, but usually it didn't."
According to the autobiography and a 2009 New York Times opinion piece by Carey Winfrey, then-editor of Smithsonian Magazine and a former Marine, Reagan sought advice on the gesture from Gen. Robert Barrow, then the commandant of the Marine Corps.
Barrow delivered the kind of advice presidents likely get on many matters: The leader of the free world can salute whenever he wants.
Reagan recalled Barrow's response in his autobiography: " 'Well, if you did return a salute,' the general said, 'I don't think anyone would say anything to you about it.' "
So Reagan began returning salutes to military personnel, a gesture that became so attached to the office that Bill Clinton received criticism for offering weak salutes while a candidate.
One critic in particular was Reagan: The topic came up shortly after Clinton's first electoral victory, when the men spoke in Reagan's post-presidential California office.
"If Clinton was going to employ the gestures used by the military, Reagan urged, Clinton needed to be firmer, stronger, more commanding," according to a 2012 Time magazine report adapted from "The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity."
The two men — Republican and Democrat, former president and president-elect, then began practicing their salutes, according to the report.
Handshakes and umbrellas
It's not the first time Obama has faced criticism for his actions regarding this custom. Last year, Obama didn't salute a Marine standing outside Marine One as he boarded the helicopter.
The president quickly disembarked and shook hands with the Marine, then returned to the helicopter and headed to the U.S. Naval Academy to give a graduation speech. Photos showed both the president and the Marine smiling after the handshake.
And the coffee cup — which now has its own Twitter handle, @Obamaslatte — wasn't the first inanimate object to draw controversy surrounding Obama and proper protocol: Critics were outraged in May 2013 when Obama recruited two Marines to hold umbrellas over him and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan when a rainstorm hit during an outdoor news conference.
The Washington Post quoted regulations barring male Marines from using umbrellas while in uniform. A spokesman told the paper that the request from the commander in chief qualified as an "extenuating circumstance."
Related reading:
Battle Rattle blog: Obama salutes Marines with coffee cup, outrage ensues
Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.
