In an early contender for the campaign trail photo of the year, a power-lifting pizza shop owner in Fort Pierce nearly pulverized President Obama's ribs yesterday when he stopped in during his bus tour of the Sunshine State. Did we mention the owner is a Republican? Amazingly, the Secret Service did not tackle this man faster than the Texans D-line zeroing in on Ryan Tannehill.
That's Scott Van Duzer, owner of Fort Pierce's Big Apple Pizza and Pasta Italian Restaurant, CRUSHING a hug with Obama.
Van Duzer is a registered Republican but he did vote for Obama last time around, the New York Times reports. He also says he warned the Secret Service ahead of time that he was going to give the president a thorough bout of man-love, though they presumably were as surprised as Obama by the force of the embrace.
The pizza shop owner is a power-lifter who can bench 350, so Obama wasn't a huge challenge.
What is it with Obama and memorable hugs in Florida? His bro-mance with Charlie Crist while touring Florida to promote his 2009 stimulus package became the "hug heard round the world" after Marco Rubio plastered it on campaign ads to attack Crist while sinking his Senate run.
So hopefully Van Duzer doesn't have any runs for GOP office in mind after this embrace.
Obama's two-day bus tour wrapped up yesterday with a swing through Melbourne and West Palm, but his campaign is keeping the fire hot in Florida. Bill Clinton is scheduled to stump for Obama tomorrow at FIU.
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