I see bent knees.
Who do I believe, you, Ms. Otis, or my own lyin' eyes?
Posted on 11/15/2009 9:10:02 AM PST by STARWISE
It wasn't what George Washington would have done, but President Obama had no problem breaking with tradition and bowing low before the Japanese emperor yesterday during a visit.
The president greeted Emperor Akihito at the front door of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo by bending at the waist and dropping his head in a deep bow -- a sign of respect and deference to the diminutive leader.
*snip*
Then-President Bill Clinton caused a ruckus when he slightly dropped his head before the same Japanese emperor in 1994.
White House protocol experts had rushed to defend Clinton's token head bob to Akihito -- which wouldn't even register next to Obama's nearly 90-degree bend.
The State Department doesn't have an official policy that prohibits American presidents from acts of obeisance before foreign leaders, but for more than 200 years, those types of formalities have been avoided.
Ronald Reagan's chief of protocol, Lenore Annenberg, sparked outrage by merely dipping her knees upon greeting England's Prince Charles.
First Lady Nancy Reagan was also forced to admit to bowing her head when she privately met with Queen Elizabeth II, but her press secretary hastened to tell reporters that "it was definitely not a curtsy."
Obama found himself in a similarly defensive position last April, when he bent at the waist before King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at the G-20 meetings in London.
The White House said at the time that Obama had simply dipped low to shake the king's hand -- although Arab newspapers hailed it as a deferential bow.
There was no mistaking yesterday's greeting.
The president, who grew up among Asian traditions in Hawaii and Indonesia, first shook hands with Akihito -- whose father, Hirohito, OK'd the attack on Pearl Harbor -- before offering his sweeping bow.
(Excerpt) Read more at origin-nyp.nypost.com ...
Another excellent video version showing side-by-side greeting comparisons from the UConn College Republicans
Either from ignorance or arrogance, is there any doubt the 0 is totally out of his league?
~~Check the videos ...........PING! Kudos to Potlatch and the UConn College Republicans!
Thank you ..!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Look no further than the U.S. Constitution, which states in Article I, Section 9, that ‘No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States.’ Those weren’t just words that prohibited Congress from naming someone a prince or princess, duke or duchess, lord or lady.
Those words were clear signals that in the U.S. all persons are on equal footing: that no nobility would exist here and thus no one had to bow to anyone.
Certainly people here have titles such as president, chief executive officer, mayor, chancellor, and the like, but none of those titles was encoded on someone’s DNA. Titles were to be ascending, earned through one’s own sweat equity and remarkable character, rather than descending, simply a generational bequeath to one’s progeny.”
So a US citizen when meeting a king or queen – in the United States or in the monarch’s country — should simply offer nod of the head as a sign of respect and shake the hand of the monarch if it was offered. This contrasts with either a deep bow or curtsy which would be an appropriate sign of fealty from a subject.
Regarding the President. again I would quote of Chris Young, when he says both are “equals on the world stage. Both are heads of state …. the only order of precedence that exists between the two is usually an alphabetical one rather than one of rank.”
Since they are peers neither would bow to the other. So no, the President of the United States would perhaps offer nod of the head as a sign of respect and shake hands.
This youtube from the U of Conn College Republicans is excellent!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U6fL7Y4BZA
The bamster is an utter fool.
I see bent knees.
Who do I believe, you, Ms. Otis, or my own lyin' eyes?
Barack Obama can’t salute right, doesn’t hold his hand over his heart during the National Anthem or a review of the troops, and he bows to other world leaders.
S’pose while he was down there he apologized for WWII??
If I were President I would say, “I bow to the will of the American People, and as a servant of the People, I bow before no other leader”, or something along those lines ... It wouldn’t be totally true, but it would keep me from supplicating to other world leaders and lessen the risk of lower back issues ...
So will they now admit Gibbs lied when he claimed 0 didn’t bow to the Saudi King?
And it’s not just a simple bow, but a subject’s bow as he is looking at the floor. You maintain eye-contact when bowing between equals or near equals.
Thank you STARWISE!
OK. That explains it. The bow was 0bama's shout-out to Emperor Hirohito for bitch slapping the Evil Capitalist America at Pearl Harbor.
No, I'm not being sarcastic here.
now that one we are wrong on. As commander in chief (not much of one granted), he is given special protocol exemption and it is thus proper for him to do a military salute, although he is a civilian himself.
Obama is such an embarrassment....among many other things.
“The bow was 0bama’s shout-out to Emperor Hirohito for bitch slapping the Evil Capitalist America at Pearl Harbor.”
It is bizarre that the president who grew up closest to Pearl Harbor would be so oblivious to the symbolic ramifications of a) failing to state clearly the military (and moral) justification for dropping the A-bombs on Japan, and b) having an American president (for the first time in history) bow in such a subservient fashion to the Japanese head of state. I’d almost have more respect for him if he was doing these things knowingly (even though this would imply he had a cunning or evil motive). Sadly, I think what we’re observing is the simple result of ignorance and inexperience.
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