For the sake of comparison, here is Obama wearing a kippah at the kotel, which some crazies undoubtedly took to show that he is a secret Jew (just as when Bush wore a kippah), or to show his allegiances.
And here is Bush holding hands with a Saudi prince.
People do strange things in the name of protocol. And if it is indeed so that the American president need not, and should not, bow to a monarch, then at the most it is indicative of Obama's lack of foreign policy experience.Furthermore, from the looks of the video, it is not a bow as in showing that one is a servant of another. Rather, it is more of a bow of greeting that normal people do towards one another in Islamic countries. He does it while shaking the fellow's hand. For more information, see the definition of salaam (equivalent of "shalom").
Give the guy a break!
4 comments:
Yes the Obamas are very fussy about protocol - so much so that Michelle Obama did NOT curtsey to the Queen, as protocol dictates.
Don't you see the irony here?
Are you still backing your 'protocal' theory?
yes, I am. you are talking about the man's wife, not the man. and as I already noted, this is not just "protocol" but also the way that a common person greets another common person - how one says salaam.
the alternative -- that he is a secret Manchurian candidate, and felt the need to kowtow *in public* and thus risk blowing the whole conspiracy... well, it is just lunacy, much more so than any forcedness (which there is none) in the protocol theory.
all the best,
josh
as well there was another issue - Barack Obama touched the queen, which is against protocol. I saw some article about it the other day...
Anyways, I was wondering what protocol, if any, there is in the US that if , say, the Saudi King visited Barack Obama would he have to adhere to that might make him look funny?
Why does strange protocol seem to only go one way - that of our president having to do something for them, and not the other way around?
If Obama had bowed so low to Queen Elizabeth, I might buy the idea that he's just showing respect. But he didn't. He bent over for the King of Saudi Arabia.
Anyone who thinks this doesn't reveal the man's heart is being foolish. And that his staff at the White House feels compelled to deny what we all clearly see took place, tells us something more about their boss.
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