Really? Really? You’d think the most technical savvy White House evuh could recognize that Americans have access to YouTube. Camille Paglia recognized it as a bow. The American media that reported on it recognized it as a bow. Even foreign news outlets reported it as a bow. And the White House is going to deny that the president lowering his head and upper body, even thrusting his leg back, doesn’t constitute bowing?
The White House is denying that the president bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a G-20 meeting in London, a scene that drew criticism on the right and praise from some Arab outlets.
“It wasn’t a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he’s taller than King Abdullah,” said an Obama aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Washington Times called it the alleged bow a “shocking display of fealty to a foreign potentate,” and said it violated centuries of American tradition of not deferring to royalty. The Weekly Standard, meanwhile, noted, that American protocol apparently rules out bowing, or at least it reportedly did on the occasion of a Clinton “near bow” to the Emperor of Japan.
Interestingly, a columnist in the Saudi-backed Arabic paper Asharq Alawsat also took the gesture as a bow, and appreciated the move.
Oh, so the excuse is that Obama is taller than the Saudi king so he has to lower his head and torso to make himself shorter? Gotcha. Then why, exactly, didn’t Obama react the same way when he met Queen Elizabeth? She’s shorter than he is, too. Here are the two greetings for comparison:
There was a deep bow for King Abdullah and essentially a nod for Queen Elizabeth. Is Abdullah that much shorter than Her Majesty?
The White House is trying to rewrite history even as Americans can see what really happened. If you’re going to spin a gaffe, at least spin it in a believable fashion. This is just pathetic.
by Stephan Tawney on Wed, Apr 8, 2009