Pages

November 16, 2009

Bowing to Pressure


Japan expert to ABC: Yes, Obama’s bow made him look like an idiot
posted by Allahpundit

So much of an idiot, in fact, that according to Tapper’s source, at least one Japanese paper isn’t running the photo out of embarrassment. This tool actually groveled himself into a minor international incident.

The good news for O-bots? It wasn’t unprecedented. Nixon evidently made a modest bow to Hirohito in the early 70s. The bad news?

“Obama’s handshake/forward lurch was so jarring and inappropriate it recalls Bush’s back-rub of Merkel.

“Kyodo News is running his appropriate and reciprocated nod and shake with the Empress, certainly to show the president as dignified, and not in the form of a first year English teacher trying to impress with Karate Kid-level knowledge of Japanese customs.

“The bow as he performed did not just display weakness in Red State terms, but evoked weakness in Japanese terms….The last thing the Japanese want or need is a weak looking American president and, again, in all ways, he unintentionally played that part.

A senior White House official (read: Axelrod or Emanuel) assured Politico this morning that no Japanese observers “would say anything other than that he enhanced both the position and the status of the U.S., relative to Japan.” Consider that spin exploded, thanks to ABC.

And yet, having said that, I’m not convinced that the “groveling” explanation for the bow is necessarily the correct one. For one thing, his protocol office is famously run by imbeciles. They may very well have simply given him bum advice: “Be sure to hunch way the hell over and stare at the ground. They all do it that way.” For another thing, and somewhat notably, Japan isn’t a stop on The One’s world apology tour. It could have been, but he declined the opportunity to turn it into one. So why give the emperor the full Hopenchange treatment, then? Is it just … reflex at this point? Or is it actually a sign of how keenly aware Obama is of the messianic hype that follows him around the world? Maybe he figured that, as the newly anointed global Jesus, he’d better go out of his way to show deference to Japan’s divine ruler lest it seem like he was “pulling rank.” Think of it as “Superman II,” if the main characters had landed on Earth convinced that they had to “rebuild Krypton’s relationships” with the universe. In that case, you don’t kneel before Zod; Zod kneels before you.

One gigantic hat tip to RightKlik

7 comments:

Opus #6 said...

I'm still shaking my head in disbelief. Someone tell me this is a photoshop joke.

T. F. Stern said...

Opus #6 stole my line.

Anonymous said...

You two have me chuckling!

Rhod said...

Apparently when he met the new White House dog, he fell on his back, raised his legs and exposed his genitals to show hospitality to the new pooch.

Word is he's preparing a DVD of his grovelling episodes to give as a gift to some stone-age tribe chieftan in New Guinea.

"Tread of Me" is his motto.


I'll go now...

tha malcontent said...

NO AMERICAN IS SUPPOSED TO bow TO ANYONE! NO ONE.. He is a disgrace as a president. We fought a war so we could be free and NOT have to bow down to royalty EVER again. NEVER! American presidents bows to no one. So don’t you Liberal asswipes give us that BS about Bush, it’s always about Bush isn’t it! Did Dick Cheney BOW to the Emperor of Japan when he was there? NO, he shook hands. But you didn’t post that picture did you!
Why do you libs always have to rush to this creeps defense every time he screws up?
In fact NO Head of State is supposed to bow to another! Remember when Barack Obama bowed before the King of Saudi Arabia at the G-20 summit in London last April? Even though the bow was captured by still and video photographers, the White House denied that it had taken place. "It wasn't a bow," But it WAS a bow, as was this one. . I lived in Japan for about 9 months and in all my time there I never saw a grown man bow so deeply to another man as we see in the Obama-Akihito photo and I also never saw such an one-sided gesture (one party bowing deeply and the other not at all). Then again, I never saw anything but Japanese subjects bowing before the deity. In essence, then, this Obama bow before the Emperor is likened to a subject bowing before a god. Any way you try to spin that, it's not good for America's image abroad. I don't care how much Obama wants to "repair" our so-called tainted image. How long must we endure this disgrace posing as the U.S. President? Ane why does Obama have to wear a Muslim tunic or a MAO outfit? I for one am disgusted by these pathetic displays every time he goes out of the country. I guess this is the “Change” he was talking about!
Or maybe he mistook the Emperor for George Soros.
Well at least he didn't give the Emperor a fist bump or a highfive, or ever worse a chest bump.

sig94 said...

Obowa was also going to kiss the ass of the Emperor's shih tzu but the dog beat him to it and starting licking its own ass. Smart dog... didn't want other dogs hurling when they sampled his ass at the Royal Lotus Sniff n' Shit Here Park in Tokyo.

Rhod said...

Wow, that malcontentedness is lethal.

And I had to bring up dogs.