Dancing Political Figures, Ranked

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Mitt Romney was caught dancing on stage at a Mormon youth conference last weekend, but he's far from the first political figure to lose his dignity for the sake of busting a move. Here are a few others, ranked from worst (embarrassing the nation) to first (almost cool):

8. George W. and Laura Bush

This is very bad. No rhythm, no moves (signaling a touchdown is not a move), he tries to play someone else's instrument (rude!) and I'm pretty sure it's offensive. He later said he "got carried away by spirit" and "it was a joyful moment." This happened at a Malaria Awareness event, by the way. The only redeeming factor? Laura appears to realize exactly how embarrassing this is and can't wait to be done.

7. Karl Rove

Unlike Bush, Rove does have some moves here, although I'm not sure what they are. Why was he jumping with his hands in the air like that? Maybe the only rap video he's ever seen is "Jump Around" by House of Pain? Why did he take out his phone? This was in 2007, well before everyone and my mom was taking selfies. Was that a "Walk Like an Egyptian" at the end? The only reason why this is ranked better than Bush is because it was supposed to be joke.

6. Rob Ford

Inappropriate and bizarre circumstances of how this dance party came about aside, the dancing is bad and awkward, despite Ford's obvious enthusiasm. His co-workers aren't much better, except for those women sitting in the front who are attending to the business of running a city and have no time for these shenanigans.

5. Richard and Pat Nixon

Nixon smiling (rare!) at his daughter's wedding is sweet enough, but he has the easiest dance out of everyone on this list and he and his wife look like they've never danced before. And if this had been shot with sound I'm 95 percent sure they would have been off the beat.

4. Mitt Romney

Considering he had no time to practice and these moves aren't exactly easy, I think our newest dancing politician did pretty good! He kind of lost it in the middle and went with what is apparently his stand-by dance, the hoedown, but he's fast on his feet for 66. Good stage-dive at the end, too.

3. Hillary Clinton

Yes, this is very much a Mom Dance, but future 2016 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's variation of the single-single-double-double is actually with the beat, which is a step above some of the others. Then she got low, which was pretty great.

2. Barack Obama

It's tough to appear dignified yet still maintain hip action, but Obama pulled it off. Also his arms don't move independently of each other, unlike almost everyone else on the list. He nearly veers into Embarrassing Dad Dance territory towards the end, though.

1. Michelle Obama

Is it a coincidence that the top two on this list are dancing to Beyonce? Probably not. Michelle wins it with an impressive variety of moves. She is excused for doing the Running Man since the lady on the microphone told her to.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.