Obama is right, everyone else is wrong
Yesterday I posted about Obama's violation of protocol when he submissively bowed to the Japanese emperor. According to some of the comments left on my post yesterday, however, this subservient gesture is no big deal. Obama was only showing "elementary courtesy," as one commenter put it.
If that be the case, then I guess we should take a look at how other world leaders have greeted the Japanese emperor.
Via HotAirPundit, we have a few photographs of world leaders greeting the emperor.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
King of Morocco
Dick Cheney
Prime Minister Slovenia
President South Korea
President Kazakhstan
Prime Minister India
Vladimir Putin
It looks like Obama is the only world leader with "elementary courtesy!"
I wonder what the brave men of Bataan would think of his bow?
Obama was not bowing as he did to humble himself, but to humble the US. There's a very big difference. It's quite clear he did NOT have to bow like that unless he chose to do so; he was in no way required to do it, yet he did. Obviously there's a reason, just as there was for the Saudi bow, and the possibilities are rather distasteful.
"The way I look at it is -- Japan is now our ally," --Abie Abraham, 95, of Renfrew, Pennsylvania, Bataan death march survivor.
[...] to the Japanese Emperor? My friend sent me over a link that really shocked the crap out of me. It was a blog that posted the same news story, and the comments on there were crazy! One commenter said that it was a ‘violation of [...]
the issue is this - Obama is an amateur - and I mean this to defend him (kind of). He has no preparation for his role RR had his first Prez run techically in '68 before winning in '80. Bush was VP, head of CIA, UN Rep and China Liason - couldn't top that. Clinton was running for Prez since birth but was an executive for over a decade before running. W wasn't much but he had been with his dad. Obama was a community organizer and a state legislator - no experience in protocol.
More than anyone else he embarassed himself but coming across as such a tool.
Cardinal:
I agree with you 100% that Obama is a rank amateur. But I'll take it a step further: He's an amateur that is incredibly arrogant. And we all know that the only thing worse than an amateur in a position of power is an amateur in a position of power that is so arrogant, he thinks he knows it all.
I am not and never have been a fan of Bill Clinton, and he was and is quite an arrogant individual. But he is no amateur. Clinton was smart enough to know that when you are out of your league, you keep your mouth shut and consult with professionals. Obama, on the other hand, for all is supposed intelligence, is a complete buffoon on certain topics and his boundless arrogance prevents him from even entertaining the idea that he just may be wrong.
I just hope he stayed at a Holiday Inn Express before he got sworn in. By the looks of it, though, it seems it was more like a Motel 6.
It seems elementary to me that before you meet a head of state, you look up the protocols; pretty poor showing for a Harvard man. Not to mention his choices for the staff that should have briefed him.
I have to agree with Alberto - there is an arrogance in his belief that he knows better than anyone else that leads him to do stuff like this.
Cardinal, you're agreeing with one of us? Have you been drinking?
"W wasn't much but he had been with his dad."
Are you that ignorant of history? W was a twice-elected Governor of the State of Texas, a state with a GDP the size of Canada. Prior to that as owner he turned around a failing baseball franchise and sold it for a 170 million dollar profit for his partners. Before that he had a ten year period of so-so oil company ownership. He was a fighter pilot in the air national guard. Not just anyone can fly a fighter... W wasn't much?
Is it just me, or does anyone else notice that in the pic with Cheney, there is just the slightest hint of a bow...from the emperor, to Cheney, that is.