Why Obama's Saudi Bow was Not a Kow-Tow (MSM admits he bowed, but it's Okay!)

Time Magazine ^ | April 10, 2009 | Scott MacLeod

[2ndDivisionVet]

President Obama definitely bowed down when he shook the hand of Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud at the G-20 in London last week. Despite the continuing outrage of conservatives and Arab-bashers, what Obama did was entirely appropriate, too. Here's my guide to Arabian royal protocol and American common sense.

In the videotape zapping around the Internet, Obama looks slightly awkward, as if he wasn't quite sure whether to bow, shake hands or do both. It turned out to be a deep bow- cum-handshake, it was certainly more than the nod-handshake he gave Queen Elizabeth II, but it was not quite a formal diplomatic bow from the waist. Maybe that's why the White House is, unofficially, denying the Obama bow.

A simple handshake would have sufficed. Obama certainly did not need to bow at all, as far as Saudi royal protocol is concerned. I have attended Abdullah's majlis in Riyadh a few times and witnessed his own personal distaste for obsequious shows of respect. In the context of a tribal society, Abdullah is a sheikh, indeed the sheikh of sheikhs, and as such his subjects would typically greet him at his Saudi-style town meetings with a kiss on the shoulder and a kiss on the hand.

-snip-

The Saudi leads a society that is steeped in custom, even if he himself is trying to loosen tradition a bit. As a much younger man, even if he is president of the world's most powerful country, Obama is entirely proper in showing pointed respect for an elder counterpart. Moreover, Abdullah holds a variety of positions that deserve and require recognition-king; custodian of the holy mosques of Mecca and Medina; elder statesman of the Arab world; son of the founder of his country.

[RasterMaster]

DUH-bama wasn’t really bowing....he was just looking for the kneepads he had on while giving other terrorist supporting trash his own version of Lewinsky-styled “lip service”.

[Principled]

American heads of state do not bow. Our Country was founded in part out of a fundamental opposition to the notion that one class of individual is subservient to another.

I can forgive the error - but instead of admitting error, they deny that it even happened. I cannot forgive that.

[syriacus]

it was not quite a formal diplomatic bow from the waist.

The bow looked pretty deep to me.

Obama Speaks Truth to Abdullah

[syriacus]

Obama is entirely proper in showing pointed respect for an elder counterpart.

Is this the same Obama who mocked McCain's age?

[syriacus]

Time is owned by Bin Talal.

And Dubai owns half of the luxury hotel at which the unions held their recent conference.

Dubai developer buys stake in Fontainebleau [Emirate gets half of Miami Luxury hotel]

Obama's kow-tow showed the world that the Democrats <3 BIG OIL. (Big Foreign Oil, that is)

That could be part of the reason why Democrats won't allow US to drill here.

[Joya]

Again, you make some good points here. Thanks. There are so many liberals, Oh-oh included, who won’t be happy till they destroy the USA. God have mercy.