Breaking Down Bush, Obama Body Language

This is a rush transcript from "America's Election HQ," November 10, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARTHA MACCALLUM, HOST: Well, from Truman and Eisenhower to Carter and Reagan, we've seen some pretty frosty handovers in some of our recent history. And while things seemed very friendly there today and both is gentlemen I just spoke to seem to be agreeing that this could have been a gracious exchange of information, it was -- just about one month ago when we heard Barack Obama slammed President Bush and his policies while on the campaign trail.

Here is some of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: The American people can't take four more years of the same failed policies, the same failed politics. We're not going to the let George Bush pass the torch to John McCain.

I'm running against all those policies that George Bush that you support, Senator McCain.

In three debates and over 20 months, John McCain still hasn't explained a single thing he would do differently from George Bush when it comes to the most important economic issues we face today.

One of the things that I think we have to recognize is pursuing the same kinds of policies that we pursued over the last eight years is not going to bring down the deficit, and frankly, Senator McCain voted for four out of five of President Bush's budgets. We've got to take this in a new direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: All right. As Howard Guttman has pointed out earlier, a lot of those jabs were policy-oriented, an economic policy-oriented. So, let's see how they did today, in the public eye.

? Video: Watch Martha MacCallum's interview

Time for a body language breakdown. FOX News contributor and body language expert, Tonya Reiman is here tonight. She's the author of the book, "The Power of Body Language."

Tonya, welcome. I think since you've been coming here over the past year that we've all sort of turned into mini-body language experts, because I was watching the two of them and trying to pick up on some of what was happening. Because everybody is looking for clues.

TONYA REIMAN, BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT: Right.

MACCALLUM: We didn't get much information on what was said. Let's take a look the moment right when the Obamas started to get out of the car and see what you notice in this.

Go ahead. Go ahead, Tonya.

REIMAN: OK. So, do you see how President Bush's mouth is moving? He switched his mouth, now he does tend to twitch quite often. So, when you see a lot of facial gestures, it doesn't come as a surprise, but this was, I think about eight or nine times that the mouth jutted and typically you do that to loosen your jaw. And so, it seemed as if -- initially, he's trying to like he was loosening him mouth so he can make introductions, but this many times, I would say that was a signal of anxiety.

MACCALLUM: Yes, let's take a look at it again. When he gets out of the car, he's kind of loosening out his jaw.

REIMAN: (INAUDIBLE).

MACCALLUM: Yes, he is a bit of a fidgeter, right?

REIMAN: He is. He is. And that's naturally for him. It's absolutely natural for him. So, you know, it's funny because something else Howard Guttman said was very true. Barack Obama comes out and tends to be, you know, the warm person, I want to make you feel good; I want to make you feel comfortable.

MACCALLUM: Right.

REIMAN: And he did that. He came out, took his hands, touch Bush's arm, and that I think is conciliatory gesture.

MACCALLUM: Now, what do you think about the arm touch? Because I heard someone say that that sort of -- that's a power grab.

REIMAN: It is a power grab. Politicians do it all the time.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

REIMAN: It's not really the best thing to do. But people also do it to make themselves come across as warm and fuzzy. Of course, at the same time it may come across as more powerful because they're touching.

MACCALLUM: All right. This is the second one that we have here. We can rack that back again. Here is the walk.

REIMAN: Yes.

MACCALLUM: It doesn't look like much, just two men walking down the colonnade, they both seem relaxed and.

REIMAN: Yes. But that goes back to touch, because if you watch, what does Barack Obama do to President Bush -- he touches his back. Now, typically, the person who is higher authority touches. So, when you see this touch, the first thing you want to realize is that Barack Obama is trying to assume the power role here.

MACCALLUM: All right. You know, it's an interesting -- do you think it's subconscious? Or do you think that he goes in there.

REIMAN: Quite often it is subconscious because that's part of his charismatic way. He is very charismatic and he tends to do these things. But quite often, that could be a calculated gesture to come across as more powerful.

MACCALLUM: Yes. I also noticed, and I don't know if we have pictures of Michelle and Laura, but when she got out of car, it seems to me that it's Michelle leaned in first to give her a kiss.

REIMAN: Yes.

MACCALLUM: What do you think about that?

REIMAN: That's also something you do. Whoever touches, goes to initiate a handshake, anytime you do something first, you're leading the way. So, what you're doing then is saying, I'm the more powerful of the two.

MACCALLUM: Yes. Very interesting.

Thank you very much, Tonya.

REIMAN: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: Tonya Reiman, with some of the physical breakdown of the body language that we saw today between these two gentlemen. And when we get a photo up in the Oval Office, we're going to show that as well. We'll take a look and see if we can find anything in the tea leaves in there. Thanks, Tonya.

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