Mark Whittington: Obama Bows to the Saudi King

Associated Content ^ | 4/3/2009 | Mark Whittington

[kellynla]

President Barack Obama has stirred yet another controversy when he appeared to bow to the King of Saudi Arabia during the recent G20 Economic Summit. The appropriateness of an elected President bowing before an absolute monarch has been questioned.

The writer Mark Steyn suggested, rather caustically, "So let me see if I understand American protocol in the age of Obama: The First Lady hugs Queen Elizabeth as if she's some granny at a seniors' center photo-op, but the President of this republic prostrates himself before King Abdullah as if he's a subject of the Saudi pseudo-Crown."

While the behavior of Michelle Obama toward the Queen of England was considered by some to be overly familiar, Barack Obama bowing before the King of Saudi Arabia seems to be obsequious in the extreme. Under no circumstances is it expected or even permitted for an American citizen to bow before any foreign monarch. This is especially true of the elected President of the United States.

It seems strange that the allegedly naïve and boorish President George W. Bush knew this, whereas the sophisticated and worldly President Barack Obama does not. Americans fought a revolution, after all, so that they would not have to bow down before any monarch. One wonders what the men who fought at Lexington-Concord, Saratoga, and Yorktown would have thought of President Obama bowing before the King of Saudi Arabia. In the Middle East especially, the act of bowing indicates submission and acknowledgment of that the person being bowed to is the master. President Obama by bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia acknowledged him as his sovereign. Indeed, President Obama may well have acknowledged the Saudi King as our sovereign, by an interpretation of local custom.

[autumnraine]

I’m more furious for being mocked all through out the election that he wasn’t a muslim, he was a Christian... and Jeremiah Wright was a member of the Nation of Islam until he and Louis Farakhan had a falling out. Trinity Church only RESEMBLED a Christian church, but it was no church that worshipped Jesus.

[autumnraine]

That’s what I thought too!!

It looked just like he was kissing his ring!

[RightWingNut]

I agree !!

It’s a wonder Barry hadn’t said “ How towelhead. How’s it hanging ? “”

Perhaps Michelle could have started break dancing ??

[Never2baCrat]

The word “Lewinski” comes to mind!

[I got the rope]

I think if I’m ever President...I’d make arabs kiss my hand.

[TigersEye]

I’d open up all domestic sources of oil, gas and coal and tell the Arabs to go kiss China’s arse for business.

[Mamzelle]

I seem to remember, from my girlhood, that Americans presented to the Queen had a bow-and-curtsy protocol. I do remember that "I Love Lucy" had such an episode where Lucy agonized and practiced to the point that she and Ethel got spasms in the backside.

Many Americans have a sense of attachment to the British monarchy...at least until that goof of a Prince of Wales takes the throne. Then it'll be all over for me...

But to watch Obama bend his skinny knee to a potentate who has forbidden such a thing for his own subjects! And I believe he also kissed Abdullah's hand, though it hasn't been reported. He bowed over the hand.

[decal]

“...we do not have to bow to any king, queen or foreign country. Of course, President Buffoon obviously never learned that while he was at Occidental, Columbia or Harvard.”

He learned it growing up in Indonesia, along with his Koran.

[Nateman]