Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on November 15, 2009

Bow wow.

Poor protocol: Pres. Barack Obama bows to Japan’s Emperor Akihito | November 2009

Quick, left-wingers… leap into Distraction Mode. Slam, deride, mock, insult Sarah Palin and her new book to distract the American people from noticing the following eye-roller about our “Joke in Chief” president in Japan (why is there no International Protocol Czar? This guy really needs help when there’s no teleprompter).

Sky News: Obama’s Bow | November 2009

46 Handshakes, One Bow Compilation — Obama Bows to Japan’s Emperor

From Hot Air:Japan expert to ABC: Yes, Obama’s bow made him look like an idiot:

So much of an idiot, in fact, that according to Tapper’s source, at least one Japanese paper isn’t running the photo out of embarrassment. This tool actually groveled himself into a minor international incident.

The good news for O-bots? It wasn’t unprecedented. Nixon evidently made a modest bow to Hirohito in the early 70s. The bad news?

“Obama’s handshake/forward lurch was so jarring and inappropriate it recalls Bush’s back-rub of Merkel.

“Kyodo News is running his appropriate and reciprocated nod and shake with the Empress, certainly to show the president as dignified, and not in the form of a first year English teacher trying to impress with Karate Kid-level knowledge of Japanese customs.

“The bow as he performed did not just display weakness in Red State terms, but evoked weakness in Japanese terms….The last thing the Japanese want or need is a weak looking American president and, again, in all ways, he unintentionally played that part.”

A senior White House official (read: Axelrod or Emanuel) assured Politico this morning that no Japanese observers “would say anything other than that he enhanced both the position and the status of the U.S., relative to Japan.” Consider that spin exploded, thanks to ABC.

From Scared Monkeys: They Lie … Obama Administration Defends Obama Bow to Japanese Emperor with Protocol Fallacy

This is priceless … Obama Administration is trying to tell us that Barack Hussein Obama bowed to the Emperor of Japan because The One was simply observing protocol. WHAT PROTOCOL? Or better yet, whose protocol? Unnamed senior Obama officials now see fit to flat out lie to the American public that is it US protocol to for a US President to bow to a foreign leader or monarch. Maybe they would like to cite that protocol?

From Politics 24/7, President Obama Bows Down To Hirohito’s Son…….Good Going Barry!:

After several meetings and press gatherings, the President swung by to see Japan’s Emperor Akihito. It was really a courtesy call. Nothing much came of the visit, nor could it have. The Japanese royal family is largely ceremonial with no official role in foreign or domestic affairs. But while he was in the neighborhood, why not do the courteous thing and stop by to say hi?

Nothing wrong with that.

But leave it to President Obama to turn it into something troubling.

Since he did not see fit to go abroad and apologize for America or make sure that terrorists know we’re willing to be friends if they just stop trying to kill us, he had to instead, bow down to the Emperor of Japan.

Now I know many of you Obama apologists will suggest it was a mere sign of respect.

That would be a convenient response but not a justifiable one. Diplomacy is both an art and a science. It is a careful dance of signals, gestures and messages combined with a rather heavy dose of traditional formality and a careful pinch of a personal touch that allows world leaders to connect on a level that is deeper than the grip and grin photo-ops afford.

All diplomatic journeys are carefully orchestrated events and many times , they are even rehearsed. For American Presidents, no where is bowing down to foreign leaders or royalty a part of that rehearsal. The symbolic importance of a formal, public bow doesn’t usually go unnoticed by Presidents. That is why they refrain from doing it. Foreign heads of states accept and understand that.

From Michelle Malkin, President O-bow-ma:

Crikey, is there a single adult in the White House who can teach the commander-in-chief some presidential protocol?

The Left complained that George W. Bush was too much of a cowboy on the global stage.

It’s better than having a waterboy…

From 1994, here’s a New York Times article, deriding then-president Clinton for almost bowing. Wow, NYT used to report unflattering news about a Democrat president? Pinch me:

“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.

[...]

Guests invited to a white-tie state dinner at the White House (a Clinton Administration first) were instructed to address the Emperor as “Your Majesty,” not “Your Highness” or, worse, “King.” And in what one Administration aide called “some emperor thing,” an Army general was cautioned that he should not address the Emperor Akihito at all as he escorted him to the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

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.

White House officials described Mr. Clinton’s tilt as something of an improvisation. Because Emperor Akihito broke with tradition in turn to raise his glass at the state dinner, some even said Mr. Clinton had managed something of a breakthrough.

“Presidents don’t bow, and Emperors don’t toast,” one official said. “So this was a little bit like the cultures meeting each other halfway.”

And most presidents don’t laugh and make erroneous shout-outs before discussing bloody massacres, or drone on without answering a question about America’s bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or snub allies while embracing dictators, or make fun of the Special Olympics, or think there are 57 states, or jump to conclusions about racial issues with the Cambridge police, or bring bloodthirsty terrorists to America, or geez… the list goes on and on.

And how, pray tell, is Sarah Palin the joke here? AP is vetting her book Going Rogue with SIX editors, thoroughly searching for the tiniest crumb that they can call a lie… did they vet either of Obama’s books with even ONE editor? One of which William Ayers has claimed he ghost-wrote and added elements from his own life in order to spice it up?

Nah. They’re taking a bow from that.

Additional reading:
Los Angeles Times: How low will he go? Obama gives Japan’s Emperor Akihito a wow bow (Updated with video, pic)
Michael Barone, Rasmussen Reports: Obama Bows, but the World Refuses to Bow Back
The Powers That Be: Bowrack Bowbama Strikes Again and Count How Many Other World Leaders Bowed to Japan’s Emperor and Newsweek Runs Incredibly Positive Cover Story on Sarah Palin
Gateway Pundit: Hu Too!… Obama Does It Again- Bows to Hu Jintao (Video) and Japanese Manners Book: Obama’s “Saikeirei” Bow Was Sign of Apology & It Was Mean and He Did It Again… Obama Gives Japanese Emperor a Waiter’s Bow and 47 World Leaders- 46 Handshakes- 1 Bow and Oh Brother… White House Denies Obama Bowed to Saudi King! (Video)
Jake Tapper, ABC News, Political Punch: On President Obama’s Bow to the Japanese Emperor, An Academic Friend Writes That Both the Left and the Right Are Wrong
Publius, Big Government: The World Shakes Hands With the Emperor; Obama Bows
Generational Dysfunction: Washington Rolls Over
Flopping Aces: Bow Wow! Obama Does it Again
NewsMax.com: No American President Ever Bowed to a Foreign Leader — Until Now
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Obama Merchandise… I’m Sure the Toilet Paper Is No Compliment and What’s with the Joking & Shout-Outs, Mr. President? Obama Fails in Leadership with Fort Hood Massacre Address, More on Shooter Hasan (video)
Tel-Chai Nation: Obama bows to the Japanese Emperor
Atlas Shrugs: Obowa: Another Country, Another Deep Bow
Pundit & Pundette: Obama bows again
Infidels Are Cool: Not again…Obama bows to Japanese Emperor (Video added)
Sister Toldjah: Yes, liberals – it IS wrong for the POTUS to bow at 90 degrees to other heads of state (UPDATED) and I guess this wasn’t really a “bow” either, eh, Mr. President?
Moonbat Patrol: Enemies Ready, U.S. About To Drop It’s Pants.
Another Black Conservative: Bow Wow! Obama Bows Again.
RightWingNews: Bowing Before Monarchs and Tyrants: Obama ‘Restores’ America’s World Standing With His Head Down – UPDATE: REAGAN DIDN’T BOW!!
Faultline USA: Obama Bowing and Scraping His Way Around the Globe.
Stop The ACLU: Obama Takes a Bow
Thinkin’bout Stuff: Obama didn’t bow … again

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