So, Newsmakers, You Think You Can Dance?

Uri Friedman 1,552 Views Apr 21, 2011

A video of Dmitry Medvedev stiffly shaking his hips, swaying from side to side, and kicking up his heels to the 90s-era Russian pop song "American Boy" during a college reunion went viral yesterday, prompting observers to compare the Russian president's dancing to Elaine's famous moves on Seinfeld and Medvedev's relationship with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ("he dances like a marionette with a stick up its butt," wrote Maureen O'Connor at Gawker, which "is also the way he governs").

Medvedev, however, isn't the first newsmaker to have his dance moves caught on camera and enshrined on YouTube for the web to ridicule, unceasingly. U.S. presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, and South African President Jacob Zuma are all members of the club. Who would win in a dance off? We've rank ordered their clips by number of YouTube views, and found that while Medvedev's moves may be hot this week, he's got nothing on Obama.

Barack Obama breaks it down to Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" in 2007, albeit with some help from Ellen Degeneres: 10,643,407 views

Medvedev grooves with his college buddies: 1,401,919 views

In this compilation of classic Boris Yeltsin moments, the former Russian leader dances with a partner using only one hand (seconds five through eight), directs an orchestra (seconds twenty-seven though thirty-eight), and pumps his fists while doing something akin to the chicken on stage (seconds forty-four through fifty-seven): 864,468 views

Julian Assange bobs around a Reykjavik dance floor in 2009, bathed in strobe lights: 573,372 views

George W. Bush tries his hand at the drums and whips out some "Thriller"-esque hand motions with African drummers in 2007 to help raise awareness for malaria: 519,833 views

South African President Jacob Zuma falls backward into the crowd while performing a wedding dance for his third wife in 2010 (he had more success when celebrating his 2009 election victory): 14,180 views

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