Drudge has noted that the White House just today is denying that The ONE actually bowed to the Saudi king despite the video evidence (and photo, posted in this thread by the way). I would have thought that The ONE purposefully did this since he's such a self-proclaimed
weltbuerger. For whatever reason this little stunt vexes me greatly.
While some of the leftist MSM don't consider this a story I refer to the left-of-center Washington Times which has editorialized repeatedly that this gesture by a U. S. President is "shocking" (noted below). I had forgotten about it but even Bubba Clinton was criticized heartily for partially nodding to Emperor Akihito of Japan (also noted below).
(Of course for those who think I don't criticize President Bush, there's a picture of him holding the king's hand while the king visited his ranch in Texas...
you can find that one on your own.)
Well, I guess that The ONE could have been picking up a bar of gold that King Abdullah dropped.
Here's a little excerpt on this insanity from The Politico.com (they have the video from Italian TV on this post showing what is
clearly a bow):
Ben Smith's Blog
April 08, 2009
White House: No bow to Saudi
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 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.
...
Link:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0409/White_House_No_bow_to_Saudi.html