Obama’s Bow Is Bush’s Bow?

April 3rd, 2009

Over at the Corner, K-Lo takes note – Obama’s Bow is Carter’s Kiss – approving of this bit of criticism at Power Line:

What’s wrong with this picture? Americans do not bow to royalty. In my view, when the royal is the ruling tyrant of a despotic regime, the wrong is compounded. Putting aside the breach of American protocol, it is akin to Jimmy Carter succumbing to Brezhnev’s infamous kiss at the signing of the arms accord in Vienna in 1979. It is a disgrace. As in Carter’s case, Obama’s supplicant attitude signifies his spirit. In this respect I distinguish it from George Bush’s otherwise embarrasing handholding with the the king.

Image removed — check link below; here’s a video of Bush bowing to Abdullah as he’s given a medal and then kissing him (not as a greeting but as part of the medal ceremony apparently).  This is silly.

Saudi King Abdullah, right, presents President Bush, left, with the King Abdul Aziz Order of Merit following their dinner at Riyadh Palace, Monday, Jan. 14, 2008, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The entire day was commemorated in pictures over at Free Republic.

  • Vermont_Neighbor
    Obama's bow was totally ignored by the main scream media. Remember, they crow when this guy does the most ordinary, mundane thing and cover when he fouls up the joint. Their cheerleading can't be denied.

    Along with the submissive bow is that $900 Million going to Gaza and Hamas. You question his priorities? Still?
  • Doubting Thomas
    Gee. He's looking down at a medal that the king gave him. Oh the horror, oh the indignity and shame of it all. Certainly this is the moral equivalent of Obama bowing low to the king!
  • Because accepting a medal from a king as you bow your head in a ceremony is somehow different from ceremonially bowing when you meet him? Either way, you're showing deference to a monarch. Unless you're worried that Obama is really revealing his secret allegiance in which case you're nuts.

    If you could make an argument as to how Obama's bow is less ridiculous than Bush's Saudi sword dance, have at it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4bC_QA2HOo
  • Steve
    Yes! Because bowing your head to accept a medal is COMPLETELY different from an almost horizontal, bent at the waist bow! That you see the two as the same really shows your flawed thinking and perceptions. But that's the problem with all liberals: they refuse to acknowledge the facts before them and instead resort to subterfuge, name-calling, fabrication, and many other tactics that are, quite frankly, embarrassing to witness.
  • They aren't precisely the same. One was a greeting and the other was part of a ceremony in which the awardee stand rigidly, hands at his sides, before bending forward to accept an award (implicitly recognizing the judgment of the person giving the award and showing gratitude in accepting it), and adoringly shaking hands and kissing the king. Kissing not as a greeting, but as a display of fealty that's part of the ceremony. Despite that, unless Bush whispered in King Abdullah's ear that we're going to arm Saudi Arabia w/ nuclear weapons at the same time, I really don't give a damn. Both Obama's bow (and of course he bowed) and Bush's ceremony mean precisely zero; I suppose they both help firm up King Abdullah's reputation in Saudi Arabia to some extent, but that effect is marginal.

    As far as not acknowledging the facts goes, I guess the folks I saw do this over the past two weeks are liberals: say that lowering taxes raises revenues (always), that Sarah Palin and George W. Bush are intelligent (and that Glenn Beck makes some good points), that people will choose to pay higher taxes given two options, that there are two sides to the evolution "debate", that even if global warming is as bad as predicted, the consequences that will last over millennia are lower than the cost of reducing emissions over the next century, that the stock market inevitably declines when it appears that the Democrats will get their way, that Banquo's Ghosts is a real page-turner, that it's remotely possible that a federal anti-gay-marriage amendment could ever be ratified, that Obama will likely abolish the dollar in lieu of a global currency, and that he will also create reeducation camps for our youth, that Norm Coleman has any possible recourse in either the MN or US Supreme Courts, that ACORN is something to fear, that George Soros singlehandedly brought down the economy for his own benefit, that a secretive liberal cabal utilizes and e-mail list to set the national liberal agenda... these are all positions taken by mainstream Republicans in Congress, on broadcast television and radio, and in the pages of the journals of the conservative intelligentsia.

    But yes, you're right that it's a bit of denial to claim that Obama didn't bow, or that Bush did precisely the same as Obama. However, I said "bowing to Abdullah as he's given a medal," which is entirely accurate.
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