So here is the lame defense that the Obama aides have come up with to explain away to Ben Smith of Politico what anyone can tell was a bow.
"It wasn't a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he's taller than King Abdullah," said an Obama aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.Ed Morrissey took the words right out of my mouth when he wrote on Hot Air, "Who you gonna believe — Obama or your lyin’ eyes?"
As Morrissey points out, President Obama is even taller than Queen Elizabeth, but he didn't feel the need to bow to her. You can view the contrasting videos of his greetings to the two monarchs at Hot Air. Clearly, Obama bowed and it wasn't because of the height difference. When someone is a few inches shorter than you, it is not necessary to bend so deeply so that your head is about even with the guy's own waist in order to greet him. But what is the aide going to say? Obama bowed and there is no nice way to explain it away.
It all makes me wonder who is handling protocol for Obama's interactions with foreign leaders. First there were all the missteps when Gordon Brown came here. Then this. Isn't someone briefing the President on how to greet foreign monarchs? And what gifts to get a visiting head of government? Or is that an office that is unfilled as the posts in Tim Geithner's Treasury?
Given the quiet in the MSM over the Obama bow, it seems that when given the choice of believing an obvious fudging excuse from an Obama aide or their own lying eyes, they have chosen the fudging excuse.
19 comments:
For crying out loud - is there anything less important to talk about?
Don't you think Obama wants to start off on the right foot with the Saudi gang?
Bowing is the right foot? Wow.
Jaw Bone: To start off on the right foot with a gang, any gang, is to intimidate them into submission, not to bow to them.
It's important to talk about because US presidents never bow to a monarch, a very undemocratic, unAmerican institution. A community organizer can kiss Adulah's derrière if he wants to. It's his damned business. But what the President does as a President is our business. Btw, neither do ladies hug the Queen, the Head of the British Empire (albiet a diminishing one), not the little granny down the street. This is called protocol, respect for the Office, for the countries.
It's important to talk about because it is the only "change" that Obama and fools like you can believe in.
As I understand it, Obama has not yet filled the position of White House protocol chief.
On the other hand, the State Department has a whole department to handle protocol. Since Obama hasn't dealt with world leaders before, he probably doesn't know that.
"To start off on the right foot with a gang, any gang, is to intimidate them into submission, not to bow to them."
Right. Because that worked out so well for Bush in Afghanistan and Iraq, didn't it? I mean "mission accomplished" and all that.
What an excellent tip.
Jaw Bone:
Are you saying that the U.S. President SHOULD bow down to a Saudi king?
Bob
Look at the still:
The hand, look at the hand
For crying out loud, view the video and look at the expression on peoples faces, especially the Arabs behind the King. Some look surprised. Why?
Because I doubt any other leader greeted the King in such a manner.
Heck, at the very least, the meetings were about people being equals among equals.
Jaw Bone: What's wrong with Iraq? Even Obie said things are looking up. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914573569198811.html
Afghanistan, the good war, however, is different when Holbrooke is talking to the Talebans instead of killing them.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KD10Ak04.html
The US pounded Iraqi AlQaeda into submission, Holbrooke bows to the Talebans.
Jaw Bone: Try to open your eyes and mind. Things change, the pre-election propagandas don't operate any more.
OK, Jaw. Why don't you give examples of a successful foreign policy where the aggrieved or threatened nation chose to display open subservience, and in return changed the other nation's policy in their favor.
The Left sees Barack Obama's bow to a king as nothing important. But for eight years, it went berserk over George Bush's "swaggering" walk. Talk about a sense of misplaced concerns.
Protocol schmotocol. Every week, it becomes more evident that Obama and his handlers are in over their heads, and they either don't know it or are too arrogant to admit it.
On the other hand, maybe Obama was just bending over looking for his teleprompter so he'd know what to do or say.
Obama, the President of the United States and leader of the free world, bows to a Saudi King who represents a despotic regime noted for its’ human rights violations, a birthplace of terrorists, a symbol of everything that is an antithesis to our system of government, and it’s no big deal?
I consider myself fortunate to have been born in a republic. I appreciate that as a citizen of a republic, I need not bow to any man or woman. We are all created equal, and blood lines do not make one person superior. This gesture by Obama should rankle every citizen for when Obama bowed as President of the United States, we all bowed.
He did bow, see the video from the latest angle:
http://tinyurl.com/obamabowedtowow
At least President Obama did not deliver the sloppy kisses and hand-holding that Bush bestowed on the King.
Obama greeted a fellow national leader with respect. Bush annoyed the president of Germany with an unwanted backrub. Bush's father vomited on the president of Japan. And wingnuts everywhere exaggerate Obama's politeness into deference. Good job fellas.
ic asks "What's wrong with Iraq?"
Well, apart from Bush/GOP pouring $3 trillion away for no good reason, and no good results, you are asking your question on a day when 5 US soldiers have been killed by a truck bombing.
We know we are retreating from Iraq in (yet another) defeat. The last US troops will be gone for sure by the date the Iraqi prime minister dictated to Bush - Dec 31 2011.
So share with us your special knowledge, ic? What did the American people get for our $3 trillion thrown away in the desert?
How did the "intimidate into submission" work there, ic? Looks like the US Army is the one that is pulling out and thus the one "intimidated into submission".
Actually Pres Obama meant to perform proskinesis but the Saudi entourage threw sparkly things in the air to distract him from committing that faux pas.
But Pres Obama must have missed that part of the Declaration of Independence that states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: all men are created equal." Americans do not bow, unless asking a girl to waltz, because we accept no man or woman as superior.
If Obama bowed regularly when meeting others, then no big deal. The fact that he bowed ONLY to the this monarch makes it disturbing.
It's not the bow, it's the cover-up of the bow.
Newsflash to all regressives, including Pat -- Americans are not special. The American century has ended. Time to get ready for your new Asian overlords.
Possibly but not too many of us lay awake at night hoping for such an event. It must be lonely to actually want to live in shrunken circumstances?
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/04/somali-pirates-read-and-act-upon-not-so.html
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