The White House statement regarding the now famous Obama-Bow-To-Saudi King Abdullah is quite a stretch. Currently the spin is that the King isn't as tall as BHO so that's why BHO had to bend so far to reach them - so he could grasp the King's hands. As Ed Morrissey points out, Queen Elizabeth is even shorter and Obama managed to shake her hands without a deep waist bow. What do you think?
The fact that the White House feels the need to explain, spin, and dismiss the bow tells me that they at least know it was a bonehead thing to do, even if they can't quite admit it.
Does it mean anything sinister? Does it mean BHO is a Muslim? I don't think so. I think all it means is that he's a clueless neophyte.
Update: Har! Don Surber answers my question. And he's spot on.
I just love how stupid the Obama handlers think we are. They are saying it's not a bow. Obama was being courteous, because he's so tall and King Abdullah is short. When I heard that, my bullshit indicator went off. But the sad part isn't that the Obama handlers think we're that stupid, the sad part is there are some people who will believe the excuse.
Obama's a neophyte meeting royalty. He didn't do much of that in Chicago while strong-arming political opponents, greasing the political machine and listening to Rev. Wright's rants (alliteration?). The White House's spinners had no idea how to approach this and pulled out a lame excuse.
Let's not blow this bow thing out proportion. Read the text of Obama's speech while in Turkey and feel the shivers (not the good kind I assure you) down the spine, read the text of his happy nowruz message to Iran, look at Biden's warning to Israel to not act if Iran's developing a nuclear weapon. These are issues that shouldn't be overshadowed by the fact that Obama doesn't have much idea how to act around Arab royalty. Don't make this relatively little thing an issue while Obama's insulting America to try to enhance his overseas popularity, selling out Israel, breaking down our alliances, and openly displaying both personal arrogance and political weakness to our enemies.
I was talking to a friend about the "Bow", and he brought up a very valid point. The "bow" could have been an accident. Think about it, in the military we reverted to how we were trained, so we wouldn't have to think about what we are to do when time came for action. BHO, is has been rumored, has been trained in the ways of Islam when he was younger. So, what if he reverted back to the ways he was trained.
G.R., A minimal expectation of a POTUS would be higher than an unthinking Pavlovian response. And I even think Obama is a little more sophisticated than that. Might he be sending a subliminal to the Muslim world? He can rest assured that the MSM will shield most Americans from knowledge of this incident. The only problem I have with this is that Muslim rulers react to weakness with an increase in aggression and hostility to wring every last ounce of advantage they can out of the weakling. But I wouldn't be too surprised if Obama is unaware of this this cultural tendency. His knowledge of history and international affairs seems especially shallow for a US senator.
Snaggletoothie, I agree with you, and I too don't think the act was accidental. The reason I say this is through my military experience. When we went to foriegn countries, we received Country Briefs, on things like culture, warnings, and customs. So, I know if some G.I. Joe at Ft Tentpeg got briefed on customs and courtesies, I know the POTUS gets them.
And as far as Muslim rulers reacting to weakness. I'm very well aware of that too. I was stationed in Germany when the hostages were taken in Tehran. I remember Carter ineffectiveness in handling the situation.
In response to Carter's inability to act, the Ayatollah Khomeini told the Iranian students "America can't do anything," and the rest is history.
Because of Carter's unwillingness or inability to act, many pissant nations took advantage of him as well. One, I guess you can say was almost laughable, but he did a lot of damage, was Idi Amin (Da Da) of Unganda. Carter was even ineffective against that baffoon.
Casto played Carter like a cheap violin as well, and the Soviets saw an opportunity and went into Afghanistan.
Because of Carter's gaffe in handling the Soviets, we ended up climbing in bed with Osama Bin Laden and the Mujahadin (taliban) to push the Soviets out of Afghanistan, and we later got bit hard on the butt because of it.
I guess I'm saying acts that are or viewed as weakness definately have serious consequences.
And as for Anonymoose, it's not the steepness of the bow that frustrates us, it's the mere fact that he did it.
8 comments:
It is a bow. But this guy's charged with the care and protection of the two holiest mosques in Islam so some people think he's real special.
I just love how stupid the Obama handlers think we are. They are saying it's not a bow. Obama was being courteous, because he's so tall and King Abdullah is short.
When I heard that, my bullshit indicator went off.
But the sad part isn't that the Obama handlers think we're that stupid, the sad part is there are some people who will believe the excuse.
Obama's a neophyte meeting royalty. He didn't do much of that in Chicago while strong-arming political opponents, greasing the political machine and listening to Rev. Wright's rants (alliteration?). The White House's spinners had no idea how to approach this and pulled out a lame excuse.
Let's not blow this bow thing out proportion. Read the text of Obama's speech while in Turkey and feel the shivers (not the good kind I assure you) down the spine, read the text of his happy nowruz message to Iran, look at Biden's warning to Israel to not act if Iran's developing a nuclear weapon. These are issues that shouldn't be overshadowed by the fact that Obama doesn't have much idea how to act around Arab royalty. Don't make this relatively little thing an issue while Obama's insulting America to try to enhance his overseas popularity, selling out Israel, breaking down our alliances, and openly displaying both personal arrogance and political weakness to our enemies.
I wish the bow was all he did.
I was talking to a friend about the "Bow", and he brought up a very valid point.
The "bow" could have been an accident.
Think about it, in the military we reverted to how we were trained, so we wouldn't have to think about what we are to do when time came for action.
BHO, is has been rumored, has been trained in the ways of Islam when he was younger. So, what if he reverted back to the ways he was trained.
I can't believe the steepness of a bow is actually worth anyone's time to discuss.
Must be a slow news day I guess. :)
"I can't believe the steepness of a bow is actually worth anyone's time to discuss."
Tell that to the Japanese.
G.R., A minimal expectation of a POTUS would be higher than an unthinking Pavlovian response. And I even think Obama is a little more sophisticated than that. Might he be sending a subliminal to the Muslim world? He can rest assured that the MSM will shield most Americans from knowledge of this incident. The only problem I have with this is that Muslim rulers react to weakness with an increase in aggression and hostility to wring every last ounce of advantage they can out of the weakling. But I wouldn't be too surprised if Obama is unaware of this this cultural tendency. His knowledge of history and international affairs seems especially shallow for a US senator.
Snaggletoothie,
I agree with you, and I too don't think the act was accidental. The reason I say this is through my military experience. When we went to foriegn countries, we received Country Briefs, on things like culture, warnings, and customs. So, I know if some G.I. Joe at Ft Tentpeg got briefed on customs and courtesies, I know the POTUS gets them.
And as far as Muslim rulers reacting to weakness. I'm very well aware of that too. I was stationed in Germany when the hostages were taken in Tehran. I remember Carter ineffectiveness in handling the situation.
In response to Carter's inability to act, the Ayatollah Khomeini told the Iranian students "America can't do anything," and the rest is history.
Because of Carter's unwillingness or inability to act, many pissant nations took advantage of him as well. One, I guess you can say was almost laughable, but he did a lot of damage, was Idi Amin (Da Da) of Unganda. Carter was even ineffective against that baffoon.
Casto played Carter like a cheap violin as well, and the Soviets saw an opportunity and went into Afghanistan.
Because of Carter's gaffe in handling the Soviets, we ended up climbing in bed with Osama Bin Laden and the Mujahadin (taliban) to push the Soviets out of Afghanistan, and we later got bit hard on the butt because of it.
I guess I'm saying acts that are or viewed as weakness definately have serious consequences.
And as for Anonymoose, it's not the steepness of the bow that frustrates us, it's the mere fact that he did it.
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