Yes, Obama and Raul Castro shook hands. No, you shouldn't freak out about it.

Nelson Mandela's memorial service brought together world leaders of all political stripes, and unified Democratic and Republican politicians in remembrance of the South African leader. Nevertheless, members of the American media and Congress did their best to turn the memorial into a farce, spawning a ridiculous faux-controversy over the fact that President Obama shook hands with Cuban President Raul Castro.

The "handshake heard round Twitter" (not to be mistaken with the "selfie heard round Twitter") rankled some on the right who felt Obama should have spurned the Cuban leader for presiding over a communist country with a dubious human rights record.

Over at National Review, Mona Charen wrote that the handshake "makes the stomach turn" and that "the nature of the Cuban regime should be enough to cause our president to find some way to avoid a handshake."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

"Shameful day to be an American," she added.

Meanwhile, Fox News spent a chunk of time discussing the handshake, with anchor Bill Hemmer saying an unnamed fellow journalist told him it "would not have been in the spirit of Mandela, it would have been disrespectful to the spirit of Mandela." (It should be noted that Mandela was not only a great conciliator, but a huge fan of the Castros.)

And here's Breitbart's John Nolte:

On the congressional front, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) piled on, saying, "If [Obama] was going to shake his hand, he should have asked him about those basic freedoms Mandela was associated with that are denied in Cuba." And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made sure at least someone trotted out a Nazi reference.

"Neville Chamberlain shook hands with Hitler," he warned.

The outrage, of course, was predictable in the hyperpartisan atmosphere that dominates Washington.

That said, the idea that the president should avoid this most basic form of decorum is absurd. Presidents routinely shake hands with world leaders with whom they disagree. To wit, here's a sampling of pictures of Republican presidents doing just that.

That's because handshakes are a purely ceremonial act that don't in themselves represent official government policy. "Unlike in the case of, say, sanctions, handshakes are purely symbolic," wrote The New Republic's Isaac Chotiner, adding that "no American president, including Obama, will consistently shun unsavory world leaders."

The same goes for members of Congress. Consider McCain, who infamously tweeted about his pleasant experience meeting former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. In fairness to McCain, he didn't say anything about shaking Gadhafi's hand, so who knows, maybe he drew the line there.

Handshakes are a mere civility. But from all the outrage, you'd think Obama had sealed a deal to give Florida to Cuba.