Bowing obama

"Because, damn it, we are America and we bow to no one." *thumps chest*

yeah....that

by the way, who would you propose that we DO bow to???

Disagree. Mr. Bush grasping the shoulders of the German Channcelor was looking ridiculous. Adopting the local customs out of respect to their royalty (a big deal in Japan) is manners.

Of course, I respect your opinion, but still think it's a bit petty and the conservative "outrage" and "shock" is just uncalled for and overblown. One blogger even called it "treasonous"....puleeze.

Strange question because the poster said "no one".

It is though about time that we realize that we must play well with others, that our status is the world is no longer one of superiority. Of course people want to blame that on Obama, but it's just the economic reality of the world. It's a new world stage and Obama's trying to play it and some people are trying to live in the past.

Funny, I never thought of the NY Times opinions as "conservative outrage":

THE WORLD; The President's Inclination: No, It Wasn't a Bow-Bow
By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: Sunday, June 19, 1994
"IF I see another king, I think I shall bite him," Teddy Roosevelt once growled. Offered that opportunity with the Japanese equivalent last week, Bill Clinton turned out to have had quite something else in mind.

It wasn't a bow, exactly. But Mr. Clinton came close. He inclined his head and shoulders forward, he pressed his hands together. It lasted no longer than a snapshot, but the image on the South Lawn was indelible: an obsequent President, and the Emperor of Japan.

Canadians still bow to England's Queen; so do Australians. Americans shake hands. If not to stand eye-to-eye with royalty, what else were 1776 and all that about? But Mr. Clinton, alas, is not the only one since George Washington who has seemed not quite to know what to make of monarchs.

There was that curtsy, during the Reagan years, when Lenore Annenberg, herself the chief of protocol, forgot herself entirely and did a little dip to greet a visiting Prince Charles. That prompted a stern warning from Miss Manners against those who might mock the effort that "was once put into freeing Americans from the necessity of bending their knees."...

But the "thou need not bow" commandment from the State Department's protocol office maintained a constancy of more than 200 years. Administration officials scurried to insist that the eager-to-please President had not really done the unthinkable.

"It was not a bow-bow, if you know what I mean," said Ambassador Molly Raiser, the chief of protocol....

full piece: http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/19/we...a-bow-bow.html

So what was wrong of Clinton is admirable of Obama. It's hard to keep all of these double standards straight!

Not really a strange question at all......unless the poster wasn't being sarcastic (which I believe she was).

really? must?
Iranians, North Koreans, Al Qaeda (you didn't say the "others" had to be nations) included?

I don't really care who our President does or doesn't bow to. Really. Neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg, if you want the truth. I do, however, happen to think that our days of puffing out our chests and proclaiming our might and power and wealth and superiority to the rest of the world need to fall by the wayside. If Obama wants to make a contribution to that effort, so be it.

With Central America still devastated by what was just a big rainstorm in the US, billions of people in the world living on less than a dollar a day, and people dying of preventable diseases all over the world, I just can't fake outrage over whether the President bows to Akihito or to Angela Merkel or Donald Duck. I just don't care.

My first thought was . . . "Wow, he has a little kyphosis going on there!".

steph

So . . I did my own surfing and found many comments . .

"I don't know why President Obama thought that was appropriate. Maybe he thought it would play well in Japan. But it's not appropriate for an American president to bow to a foreign one," said conservative pundit William Kristol speaking on the Fox News Sunday program, adding that the gesture bespoke a United States that has become weak and overly-deferential under Obama.

Another conservative voice, Bill Bennett, said on CNN's "State of the Union" program: "It's ugly. I don't want to see it." . . ."We don't defer to emperors. We don't defer to kings or emperors. The president of the United States -- this coupled with so many apologies from the United States -- is just another thing," said Bennett.

Some conservative critics juxtaposed the image of Obama with one of former US vice president Dick Cheney, who greeted the emperor in 2007 with a firm handshake but no bow.
"I'll bet if you look at pictures of world leaders over 20 years meeting the emperor in Japan, they don't bow," Kristol said.


While most of the commentary about the bow in Japan was decidedly negative, some political observers, like longtime Democratic activist Donna Brazile, came to the president's defense.
"I think it's a gesture of kindness," she told CNN, adding that the bow appeared intended to show "goodwill between two nations that respect each other."


Meanwhile, an unnamed, senior Obama administration official told the Politico.com news site that the president had simply been observing protocol.
"I think that those who try to politicize those things are just way, way, way off base," the official told Politico.
"I don't think anybody who was in Japan -- who saw his speech and the reaction to it, certainly those who witnessed his bilateral meetings there -- would say anything other than that he enhanced both the position and the status of the US, relative to Japan," Politico wrote.
"It was a good, positive visit at an important time, because there's a lot going on in Japan."


Obama - who stands at over 6ft tall - had to make the exaggerated bow as he paid his respects to the diminutive pair when they met yesterday (15.11.09).
He stopped off at the Imperial Palace to meet the royals on part of his nine-day tour of Asia, which also includes Singapore and China.
An onlooker said: "It was a very funny site seeing Obama almost bend over completely double when meeting the emperor - but in Japan it will be looked upon very favourably.
"A very low bow is seen a real sign of respect, so he will have definitely started off on the right foot."

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Was it protocol or not? There is a lot out there . . . . .





steph