An impromptu back rub that President Bush gave German Chancellor Angela Merkel is now massaging millions of funny bones.
A 5-second video and series of photographs recently posted on YouTube.com and various blogs show Bush surprising Merkel at the G-8 Summit by quickly rubbing the back of her neck and shoulders. The chancellor immediately hunches her shoulders, throws her arms up and grimaces, though she appears to smile as Bush walks away.
The video has been one of the most popular clips on the Web and spawned countless remarks on the particulars of etiquette for world leaders. Coupled with Bush's use of an expletive at the summit and a U.S. senator comparing the Internet to a ''series of tubes,'' the incident reveals anew the power of the Web -- and YouTube, specifically -- to beam embarrassing political gaffes around the world.
Larry Sabato, professor of politics at the University of Virginia, agrees that today, public figures have to be more careful in ''a thousand ways.'' But he maintains sites like YouTube can be revealing.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Bush-YouTube.html?_r=1&oref=slogin