Maybe He Was Just Doin' the Hopey Pokey? (or "Bow WOW??")

OK, explain this to me. Obama's doing his "I'm King of the World" tour (or its it the "I *want* to be king of the world" tour?) and while standing before the Saudi King, he ... bows .... yeah, the leader of the free world puts himself in a position of submission to a foreign leader. Not only does he spend part of the week talking down America and apologizing for America, and telling the world that not only is America arrogant, we're also not that mad at Muslims and we aren't a Christian nation .... nope, he also chose to *bow* before the Saudi King. (the audio is in Spanish)

An "unidentified spokesman" for the White House claims that it was a double-handed grip-type handshake and that because of the "height differential", Obamao adjusted his height out of respect.

The White House is denying that the president bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a G-20 meeting in London, a scene that drew criticism on the right and praise from some Arab outlets.

"It wasn't a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he's taller than King Abdullah," said an Obama aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Washington Times called the alleged bow a  "shocking display of fealty to a foreign potentate" and said it violated centuries of American tradition of not deferring to royalty. The Weekly Standard, meanwhile, noted that American protocol apparently rules out bowing, or at least it reportedly did on the occasion of a Clinton "near-bow" to the emperor of Japan.

Interestingly, a columnist in the Saudi-backed Arabic paper Asharq Alawsat also took the gesture as a bow and appreciated the move.

"Obama wished to demonstrate his respect and appreciation of the personality of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, who has made one of the most important calls in the modern era, namely the call for inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue to defuse the hatred, conflict and wars," wrote the columnist, Muhammah Diyab.

The video shows Obama dipping toward the king as G-20 leaders greet one another at the ExCel Centre in London.

LIAR!

Courtesy of TheAmericanThinker.com come these two screen shots from the video that prove Obama and him Obaminions are lying.

And this one

And then there's this commentary from TheAmericanThinker:

So why would the White House lie, instead of just admitting that the President made a gaffe? Well, for one thing, history teaches us that bows between official representatives of nations are a rather serious matter.

We live in an age of a Clash of Civilizations (in Samuel Huntington's words), with many in the Islamic world convinced that Western Civilization, ascendant for the last few centuries, is about to be humbled by Islam, the once and future dominant force in the world. No Caliph exists today as head of the entire Islamic world, but the number two slot is amply occupied by King Abdullah, as guardian of Mecca and Medina, Islam's two holiest cities.

Over three hundred years ago, another world civilization accustomed to being the largest and richest on earth, faced a challenge which turned into a clash, which turned into a fall. China, the Middle Kingdom, unquestioned as the dominant nation of East Asia, came into regular contact with the Western nations. At the time, the only pattern of diplomatic relations recognized by the Son of Heaven (China's emperor) and his court was that of tributary emissaries to the Middle Kingdom. Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and the other nations of East Asia understood and accepted that China was dominant, and when their representatives came to Beijing, they performed the required prostration acknowledging their (and their rulers') subordinate place in the pecking order. They also brought "gifts" to the Son of Heaven, and were sent home with "gifts" from the Imperial Court, amounting to trade, disguised as nothing so crass as commerce, but rather as a sign of supplication from them and benevolence from the Emperor.

In plain English, if you wanted to be received and recognized as legitimate at the Imperial Court, you had better bow down before the Emperor in a kow tow (叩頭), prostrating oneself before the glorious ruler, and touching the head to the floor.

This was not an idle matter of protocol, and everyone knew it, especially the emissaries of European rulers who made their way to Beijing, in search of trade relations: tea, silk, porcelain, and other products of China that were of finer quality than anything available elsewhere.

One of the most famous incidents in China's history of contact with the West occurred in 1793, when the Earl of Macartney came to Beijing as an emissary of the King of England, carried to Tientsin (the port city for Beijing) on a warship. The Chinese officials deemed the presents he brought to the Emperor from King George III as "tribute", putting the Macartney mission in the context of traditional tribute relatons.

But when it came to the kow tow, Macartney refused. In the words of the acknowledged dean of American China historians, the late John K. Fairbank of Harvard,

[Court officials] urged Macartney to practice the performance of the kowtow. This he stoutly refused to do, and he only went down on one knee before the Chien-lung [the Emperor], as he would have done to his own sovereign. The emperor issued an edict commending King George III for his "respectful spirit of submission" but pointing out that "our celestial empire possesses all things in prolific abundance"...

Ben Smith noted a somewhat analogous response from Saudi Arabia, following the fateful bow:

Interestingly, a columnist in the Saudi-backed Arabic paper Asharq Alawsat also took the gesture as a bow and appreciated the move.

"Obama wished to demonstrate his respect and appreciation of the personality of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, who has made one of the most important calls in the modern era, namely the call for inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue to defuse the hatred, conflict and wars," wrote the columnist, Muhammah Diyab.

Alas for the Son of Heaven and his nation, the Opium War followed a few years after the demi-prostration of the  British envoy, and it was established that China was subordinate to the cannons, guns, and warships of the Western powers, who proceeded to help themselves to China's wealth, sending opium [over China's feeble objections] in return for what they desired. 

President Obama voluntarily bent his knee and bowed his head before the most important ruler in the Islamic world. Let us hope that it does not require a war to right this insult to American sovereignty.

Did anyone see him "bow" or "double-handshake" Queen Elizabeth? Nope. So is he a kiss ass just to muslims, or is he a mysogynist, too? (One can only hope she "moved the handbag" in a signal to "get this creep away from me NOW!")

Or maybe they're just doing the Hopey Pokey.

.... but, yeah ... they denied that, too.

Comments

[Becky]

Dang, I don't even bow that low in karate class!