No amount of media training can prepare a president for a media assault like this.

Bush’s shoe attack in Iraq this week reminded me of another attack on a head of state visiting a country he was not exactly welcome.

In July 1987, a soldier in the ceremonial guard hit then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on the shoulder with a rifle. The soldier was protesting India’s involvement in Sri Lanka. The context of this state visit was controversial, too. The buzz this created –before camera phones and viral videos– was damaging to Gandhi’s stature.

When the history of the Iraq was and the failed strategy is written, the journalist’s shoe will surely become a metaphor of protest –fit for the Newseum.