Rockefeller gesture

.
In what would become an iconic photo of the 1976 campaign, Rockefeller appeared to be responding to hecklers at a rally in Binghamton, New York, with a raised middle finger. Rockefeller's former "right hand man" Malcolm Wilson told reporter Richard Zander that Rockefeller "just got his fingers mixed up" while signaling somebody. While political observers scoffed at that explanation, it may have been true: Rockefeller had dyslexia and was known to favor his middle finger, signing his signature with a pen held between his index and middle fingers. When Rockefeller's camp saw that the obscene gesture story was popular to many Republicans, they stopped denying that that had been his intent. "At the time, Rockefeller's finger flashing was scandalous. Writing about the moment 20 years later, Michael Oricchio of the San Jose Mercury News said the action became known euphemistically as 'the Rockefeller gesture'."