Obama Bows to Saudi King
http://media.washingtontimes.com/med...c8653055db7939
When President Obama met King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia during the Group of 20 summit in London last week, he
made a deep bow from the waist, to which the reaction in conservative blogs was (paraphrased) "We fought a king in 1776, for this."
Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom recalled how New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani "once practically spit in the face of a presumptuous Saudi Prince" before going on to draw an obscenely unfavorable comparison to the regime to whose leader Mr. Obama was bowing.
"Our President?
He xxx8230; bowed. He bowed to religious intolerance. He bowed to misogyny. He bowed to anti-semitism. He bowed to homophobia. In short, he surrendered our country's ideals, offering up our principles for sacrifice on the altar of Otherness xxx8230; xxx8230; And by bowing before a Saudi Prince, our President xxx8212; in addition to [ignoring] 200+ years of precedent xxx8212; has shown himself to be as principled as many of us knew him to be. Which is not principled at all."
Also getting conservative dander up was the lack of coverage given to the bow by the American press.
Ed Morrissey at Hot Air noted that even former President Bill Clinton once got excoriated for appearing to bow to a foreign monarch.
"The New York Times sharply criticized Bill Clinton for a mere inclination of his shoulders towards Japanese Emperor Akihito in 1994: '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?'
"The media took Clinton to task for even suggesting the unthinkable. Now they remain silent on Obama's leap to the unthinkable. When will the New York Times cover this, even to the extent [it] covered Clinton's inclined shoulders? Or is the unthinkable in 1994 turned into the unmentionable in 2009, thanks to a national media that has completely sold out to Barack Obama?"
More:
Inside Blogotics - Washington Times