However if you are like me you may have wondered how the majority of Americans felt about that exchange, given the deep partisan split that separates the Left and the Right in this country.
Well now we know.
Courtesy of the Arizona Republic:
In the days after Gov. Jan Brewer pointed her finger at President Barack Obama, her office received more than 12,000 letters and e-mails from people across the nation. Most of the communications condemned the governor, according to her office.
The Arizona Republic filed a public-records request and obtained 100 letters randomly selected by the Governor's Office after it received them in the wake of the Jan. 25 encounter on an airport tarmac.
The letters were written by housewives, veterans, middle-school students from New Orleans and even a former gubernatorial counselor who now lives in Peoria. The letters were e-mailed, handwritten and composed on old-fashioned typewriters.
Each of the e-mails was read by Constituent Services staff. Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson could not say if the governor actually read any of the letters.
Many of the writers were disgusted with the governor, calling her "trashy" and "tasteless." Others offered etiquette tips on how to behave when welcoming a head of state.
"If you approached me like you did the president I would have taken great comfort by poking you in the nose," wrote Eleanor Tafolla from Cathedral City, Calif. "You might want to work on you (sic) prissy attitude you project. Whoa lady you did not deserve a talk with the president or anyone else for that matter."
Some questioned whether Brewer would have pointed her finger at a White president and behaved as though she were in the Old South.
Deborah Gross of Michigan wrote, "Your racism and crude behavior is typical of the GOP. Karma will not be kind to you and your fellow regressive, racist Republican friends."
Still others said they would never again visit Arizona or support the state while Brewer is governor. "The stamp I use to mail this message will be the last cent I ever spend on anything related to the state of Arizona," Linda Bowers of Ohio wrote. "I suppose a populace that would elect the likes of you deserves the contempt and disbelief with which the rest of the nation views you and your state."
Of course, as you can imagine, there were some who supported her wholeheartedly. Some even wished she had been even MORE inapprorpatie and even LESS professional.
One writer lamented it was "too bad you couldn't have slapped him instead."
Agnes Brunetti of Shenandoah, Iowa, wrote that she was "so very proud" of the governor for "standing up to that narcissist, egotistical, smug, puffed up President!!"
However like I said that kind of response was not the majority opinion, and in the end it was clear that Americans do not like it when anybody disrespects their President, whether they agree wit hall of his policies or not.
Which I think might be a good lesson for certain Republican candidates as they vie for the job of facing off with Obama in the upcoming 2012 election.
