Doubly apt in this case. Obama is not usually a physically awkward guy, but it looks like his brain and his body had a disagreement. Why did he do it? It’s hard to tell, but it’s a sure bet he’s sorry now.

He is also the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, a VERY high job for any Muslim. There are only a handful of people in the world that would not be, hmm, severely punished for *not* bowing to them let alone greeting as an equal. Obama met him as a servant and was accepted as such.

I’m sure this somehow make the Alaskan Kid and especially Kamper somehow warm and fuzzy this is so, yet I shudder to think what those others that take this stuff for real are thinking now. Nor do I think that Obama was totally ignorant of this – I wasn’t well before this incident and I’m a Redneck East Tennessean.

Again we are left with either ignorance of a HUGE magnitude or an intentional homage. Bush never made them of this magnitude (indeed, we note in those pictures the Suadi King isn’t flinching and embraces an equal) and was an idiot – what does that make Obama? Neither choice is a good choice, though at least in this case many are choosing stupidity – more often than not they choose dishonesty.

Though I rather suspect that in this case it is because there is no way to rationalize away an intentional thing. I somewhat agree that it was off the cuff and immediately seen as stupid (Obama’s face and body language afterward is as such). Though I more suspect he figured on a similar greeting back and didn’t get it. I also rather suspect that his position in the Muslim world had something to do with it too (not necessarily that Obama is muslim – the court is still out on that one, especially given some of his world tour comments – but more because he would feel that this position commands a larger amount of respect and thus the bow over the kiss).

I mostly figure he expected a similar bow in return and was angry he didn’t get it – ignorance of an extreme that even Bush would not have done (Ignorance coupled with a true narcissist psyche). I’m also still not so sure that the State Department isn’t playing politics and screwing the Clintons (and by proxy Obama) – bet even then at this point I would at least have someone I trust checking things (assuming this protocol also came from the State and not Obama himself).

I think this assumption would be a lot stronger had he also bowed to the Queen of England. But in that case, he knew enough to greet her with no more than a nod of the head. Michelle Obama, on the other hand, knew so little of protocol that she went up and hugged her. I guess there can be a bit too much awareness of equality of position too.

(Trying to earn some grace for the “estrogen” wisecrack on the other thread. /g)

there is quite a bit of evidence that Obama is ignorant of much of the history and tradition of his own country, and seems not to understand its basic underpinnings.

Which country would that be? /g

Seriously, though, the problem is that Obama is not constitutively an American; his Americanism is an after-market add-on. He doesn’t intuitively and reflexively react as an American, but seems almost to calculate consciously (“Hmm, how would an American react? I’ll do that.”) how to comport himself, which is why he hits sour notes. In this he’s more like a naturalized citizen, but without the burning patriotism for this country that they so often have. He’s more of a “two cheers for America” kind of guy. That’s why he had no problem with Jeremiah Wright, or Bill Ayers: they hate a country with which Obama has only a tenuous connection.

Can Obama hit a baseball? Can he throw a spiral with a football? Trivial, prosaic considerations – but how many American men would flunk them? And yet I bet Obama would. Can you picture him at a baseball game? If he gets dragged there I bet he’ll look as comfortable as a dog getting a bath. And if he ever has to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, I can’t wait for him to reprise Kerry’s girly-man throw. The YouTube of that will definitely be a keeper.

The point is that he’s not really an American. He has a piece of paper that says he’s one, but that’s not the same thing. Legally he is, but culturally, viscerally, fundamentally – he’s not.

I agree, Peter. I think your comment is very, very perceptive and I think that’s exactly what happened.

I don’t think I agree with your reaction, though. A president, any president, has to be much more in control of himself than this, especially when meeting foreign leaders. Split second stupid decisions are off the table when you become president and you’re presiding over foreign relations. It’s yet another sign that Obama wasn’t ready for the presidency, and although it’s small, it’s telling. He needs to grow up quick and learn what his job is really all about (representing American interests, not throwing them under the bus) before he lands us all in a deep pile of …. something.

Yes, they did. It was at that point that his campaign should have been over. The media and every other candidate should have hounded him out of the race for being a blatant, bald-faced liar. Who needs a president like that? And if it was any other candidate they would have. But the press had put all their chips in the pot for him already and weren’t about to throw them all away so they went all in and labored mightily to cover for him. And I guess they got away with it. I mean it’s such a howler, as you said, that there’s no other rational explanation that is reality-based.

I’m not keen on Bush smooching and hand-holding with the Saudi, but since neither he nor anonymous White House spokespeople lied about whether he did or did not do so, I certainly didn’t write about it at the time. It’s the lie that motivated me to write about Obama’s bow here.

Later on, in the comments, I added my impressions of the bow itself. I stand by them.

You show a similar ignorance of history and tradition on this subject as Obama, which hardly surprises me. Hand-holding and kissing are culturally accepted between men in Arab countries as signs of friendship and cordiality. They are between equals. Bows, on the other hand, in Arab culture and in most of the world, are signs of subservience between unequals. There is no particular reason a president couldn’t or shouldn’t smooch with any world leader, if he/she so desired, although you could object on the grounds of taste or familiarity. This is entirely and qualitatively different from the objections to the bow, which is an American President being subservient in a way that negates deep American traditions involving our revolution and its change in attitudes towards royalty.

Of course therin lies the problem with Obama and his supporters – ignorance coupled with a supreme belief in their own knowledge even when it is woefully lacking.

It still amazes me how arrogant they can be about their positions – Kamper *has* to know he/she never bothered to look at the meanings of those gestures yet is absolutely certain he/she is correct.