This one photograph says more about who Obama is and what he thinks of himself and his country than anything he has ever said. Make no mistake, this subservient moment captured in the photograph speaks volumes of the content of his character and what he is made of.
Something inside Barack Obama is so powerful and so overwhelming that even though he is the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, he still feels an uncontrollable urge to bow and show his submissiveness to the foreign elite. Something is definitely wrong with this guy.
Read all about this disgusting display of submissiveness HERE.
I know this fits the narrative that he is weak when defending America – but I think the outrage is misplaced on this one.
I visited Japan a few years back, and everyone bows to everybody – and you are supposed to bow very low when greeting an elderly person, with the lower you go being a sign of respect. That is why people will sometimes bow many times to outdue one another in “politeness”.
I admit it looks awful in a photo, but it is actually proper cultural protocol when in Japan. Let’s not look petty, as I did similar bows before every karate match as a kid.
Mr. Mojito,
Does there exist a photo of another president or official of this country bowing? They showed Cheney and MacArthur standing. But I saw no pictures of anyone else bowing to a Japanese official or ruler. Can you produce any?
Also, this action must be placed in the context that Obama is there to apologize for our atomic bombings of the Japanese. He is the only president in our history to feel the need to do that.
Sorry, I need more than what you say here.
I don’t like it, hate it in fact, but not as much as the Saudi bow. I have had to do business in Japan and this is the established way of greeting someone. The more prominent the person the deeper the bow (you have to make it clear you are bowing). What makes it worse is that the Emperor is a full grown midget and the President is tall, so the effect is even more jarring than it should be. I don’t think the President means to demean our nation but rather to be culturally sensitive – I respect that but think this was not necessarily a good idea.
What I would have done is have my handlers tell the Emperor’s people during prep meetings that the President would not bow. That would take the away the sting of the offense, if it was felt, and at the same time acknowledge that we understand the cultural sensitivities of the Japanese.
Honey,
Some of the commenters of American Thinker said that during their time in Japan they learned that it is indeed customary to bow but that because the bow is complex, best performed by Japanese and awkwardly at best by others, it was perfectly OK for Americans to politely shake hands.
Paul Vincent Zecchino
Manasoviet Key, Florida
15 November, 2009
Mojito:
The president of the United States has never, ever, bowed down to a foreign leader or dignatatry. If fact. Clinton almost bowed to the Japanese emperor at the White House and was promptly stopped by State Dept protocol experts.
The president is not a karate student, he’s not a businessman, and he’s not a visitor: he is the most powerful man in the world and should bow to no man. That is why America fought and won its independence.
Alberto, how is he “not a visitor”? He is visiting Japan isn’t he?
To clarify a couple things
– Obama should not have apologized for Hiroshima and Nagasaki
– Obama should not be apologizing to the rest of the World for the US actions
– Obama is weak on defending the US
– However, I don’t see this incident as something to be upset about. He bowed in Japan to an elderly midget who many Japanese think is equivalent to God out of cultural and customary respect. This is very low on the list of things that matter.
Mojito:
He is not a visitor in the sense that he is not a tourist or a house guest. He is a visiting foreign leader and subject to a completely different protocol if it were you or I visiting.
Secondly, no president, I repeat, no president of the US should bow to another leader, regardless of their customs. To us that is a sign of submission. If the Japanese had a custom of kneeling before their emperor, would you have found nothing wrong with that too?
I completely understand Japanese protocol in this greeting, as upon meeting me I would expect him to recognize my protocol and kiss my ass.
Before this Presidency passes, it’s going to get worse…
warning: Obama with a Mao jacket on..
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/enemies_foreign_domestic/the_mao_jacket_of_obamao.php
“Let’s see… how can I show my contempt for America in a manner not previously thought possible? Last week I was giving the American flag my trademarked “crotch salute.”** A day or so ago I was bending over for the Emperor of Japan. Humm, what’s left? I know, I’ll put on the biggest mass murderer of the 20th century’s signature jacket for my photo-op. And some lip gloss! And pantyhose! Fuck yeah! [Fist pump]”
Kneeling before Zod is next: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKDFop0aqYQ
It’s interesting how Obama bows down to non-white monarchs, but will not bow down to a white monarch like the Queen of England. I mean, that is besides the point, since the point is that as the face of the USA in the world, he shouldn’t bow down to anyone, but it’s just an observation. I wonder if it might not be because of some latent racism?
I agree with a lot here, it is a way of showing respect for an older person, in fact if he met with the president of Cuba who is much older than himself it would be a sign of respect for him to bow and kiss his hand…
Hey Marc, Your comment rocks! it would be funny if it wasn’t tragic, Americans got themselves in quite a quandary, you know the proverbial deer caught in the headlights!
Thank you Babalu for giving everyone a voice here, this is indeed our most prized possesion.
Yeah Marc we are living in the most exciting time ever watching the events portrayed by
Nostradamus,Paul,John in the Book of Revelation….
As our leaders forsake our roots and claim that we are no longer a Christian nation , it’s no doubt going to be trying times as these events unfold….
The Japanese must be gloating that the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack is only three weeks away.
?????????
On another note, Obama is not visiting his childhood home and school in Indonesia, next door to Singapore.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/obama-indonesia.htm
My Indonesian friends are baffled at what they consider disrespect from a man they admire. As one Indonesian told me: “Obama maybe has mental trauma from his Indonesian stepfather.”
oh – oh raylove54, the commentary in quotation marks isn’t mine, it’s from the website I linked to…
In response to Rayloves54 statement that if the el obama should meet with with el cagao..fidel “It would be a sign of respect for him (el obama) to bow and kiss his hand” I say…El obama should bow qnd kiss el fundillo del leader cagao.
Raylove 54…are u out of your mind? you cant be serious. U just want attention right?
That picture makes me sick!!!
Raylove : “I agree with a lot here, it is a way of showing respect for an older person, in fact if he met with the president of Cuba who is much older than himself it would be a sign of respect for him to bow and kiss his hand…” Sorry , but i dont think any self respecting person would ever bow and kiss Castro’s hand. It doesnt matter if he is older!! Communists do Not deserve respect from anyone.
“The president of the United States has never, ever, bowed down to a foreign leader or dignatatry.”
Okay, so then the following should rock your world.
http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/gwashington.html
George Washington
1st President of the United States
(April 30, 1789 to March 3, 1797)
Points of Interest:
* Believing that shaking hands was beneath a president, Washington bowed to his visitors.
http://www.constitutionfacts.com/?section=foundingFathers&page=fascinatingFacts.cfm
President George Washington would bow to guests at presidential receptions to avoid physical contact and the tradition lasted through the presidency of John Adams. Washington would rest one hand on a sword and the other holding a hat to avoid the remote possibility of anyone forcing a handshake! Thomas Jefferson ended the tradition of “bowing” by shaking hands when greeting people.
Cubabuzz:
Thank you for the “fascinating fact.” I’ll be sure to remember it if the question comes up the next time I play Trivial Pursuit.
Of course, the most fascinating part of this fact was Washington’s motives: “Believing that shaking hands was beneath a president, Washington bowed to his visitors.” In other words, at the time a polite bow with a hand on one’s sword and the other holding a hat was considered less formal than a handshake. Washington did not only want to avoid looking subservient to his guests, he did not want them to even get the impression they were his equal.
Nice try — I’ll give you credit for that — but you know the context of Obama’s bow to the emperor and it has absolutely nothing to do with what George Washington felt was proper and improper 200 years ago.
Jesus, what a psychotic comment. Criticize Obama for something substantial, all right, not for showing elementary courtesy. And learn about other culture’s customs while you’re at it instead of showing off your ignorance.
BTW, did you have a similar reaction when Bush held hands with the Saudi king a few years back? Didn’t think so.
Spygirl:
Do yourself a favor and learn a little about political protocol and what is and isn’t acceptable by political leaders instead of showing off your ignorance.
The pic is pathetic and the worse part is the message that it sends…..and this is just less than a year in the presidency….Go figure 3 more years…..
I can’t wait to vote again…..and again…and again…AGAINST THIS PATHETIC SOCIALIST…
saludos
Alberto, first of all, accept in good grace that you were incorrect in your claim that a “president of the United States has never, ever, bowed down to a foreign leader or dignatatry”. Dead wrong.
Second, you missed that point that it was not just George Washington, bowing lasted through the Presidency of John Adams. You seem to have missed that also.
What it comes down to is that the original tradition was to bow and this tradition was changed on a whim by a later President.
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”
The above most definitely applies to the debate as to whether a bow or a handshake is more appropriate. Who the bleep cares. No one should, for it is a silly debate.
Okay, from ABC’s Jake Tapper’s Japan expert, who is pretty good on the whole thing and puts it in perspective:
http://tinyurl.com/yc6dtfx
After all that, it is obvious this bow would have been almost nothing more than an exageration of Japanese custom/protocol by an over anxious young world leader looking to be pleasing and diplomatic … however, taken on whole with the last ten+ months of bowing and apologizing all over the damn world it is not acceptable from a man who has yet to give credit to America for anything, let alone step up and be the leader of the free world instead of trying breathlessly to enslave us here at home to the government that has lost all concept of it’s duties as outlined in the Constitution.
Not to mention abandoning our troops in war so that they look like weak failures in an attempt to show the rest of the world, most especially our enemies, that we’re no real threat.
In short, his “bows” are nothing more than his ideology that we should be of a ‘one world’ mentality.
Obama has no idea what it is to be an American. The only time he considered himself one was when he was selling himself to the voters in 2008.
Here’s what I posted about this photo at another blog …
Why did Obama bow?
a) Political Correctness – to cancel the height difference between Obama and the Emperor? To show that we are all equal?
b) Lack of protocol knowledge on greeting foreign digntaries? Wait, but wasn’t this addressed before? 😉
c) Selective and deliberate? Ok to bow to the King of Saudi Arabia and Emperor of Japan, but not to the “Imperialist” and “Colonialist” (Kenya included) Queen of England?
d) Is it a deliberate provocation, from an apt Alinsky disciple? So, what is it they are trying to divert our attention from? What are they up to this week?
e) By the exaggerated bow, is Obama mocking or making fun of protocol and tradition?
f) By not holding his hand over his heart at the tomb of the unknown soldier on Veterans’ Day, and bowing low to the emperor of Japan (son of Hirohito), is Obama deliberately repudiating and insulting the WWII vets and the families of those who did not return?
g) Could it simply be hubris? He does what he wants when he wants … after all he’s “The One”. How dare we question it?
h) All of the above
I suggest the White House Protocol staff learns that just staying at a Holiday Inn Express is not enough to become experts in protocol and foreign affairs … “Protocol for Dummies” may just be what they need and make it required reading for EVERYONE at the White House! 😉
And to all those paranoid, right-wingers … please hold any criticism if you happen to see Obama in one of his hamburger escapades, bow before entering a Burger King!!! 😉
I wish you well 🙂 Melek
“Machiavellian Intelligence in its highest form comprises breaking alliances, breaking promises, breaking rules, lying , blaming , misleading and misdirection. Little wonder that Saul Alinksy, the genie whose lamp Obama rubbed three times, heartily recommended Machiavelli’s rules to any aspiring Have-In-Chief to hold on to power by any means at his disposal, at the expense of the Have-Nots.” ~ Adrian
So is he subservient and submissive, or arrogant and snobbish? Make up your mind folks…
Eddy Gonzalez
Throw out your first two choices, and add calculating to the last two. Know that when he “bows” he is not doing it as an individual, but as the American people.
He’s trying to bring our military to its knees (physically and spiritually) in Afghanistan, and is trying to bring the American people down a few pegs in the world’s eyes. HE’s not subservient … but he wants the world to think we are.
On both fronts he forgets our eyes are watching him.
That said, the people advising him are morons.
Too bad he didn’t have an encounter with a Billy Goat…
Eddy,
Obama is subservient and submissive to our enemies and arrogant and snobbish with his fellow Americans.
to spy girl and Cubabuzz…
What little knowledge of history and WWII you guys have.
Did you know that many American POW and American Civilians POWs were made to bow to the Japaneses troops before being beheaded?
Please keep you ignorance to yourself s and maybe you can stop defending your Chulo “the one who walks on water” every chance you get.
Henry –
I’m thinking Chupacabra
Cubabuzz:
The only thing silly about this debate is your insistence that a bow is simply an alternative greeting for a world leader.
Apparently Nixon bowed once, but did it right. So not only, did Obama break some protocol that again apparently existed for Bill Clinton, but he did it all wrong, to the point that the Japan media are running the photo op of Obama saluting the empress instead so as to make him look “dignified”.
One of the subjects of this comment thread is apology hysteria. Can anyone show me proof that Obama is apologizing for Hiroshima and Nagasaki? I mean, this is really starting to resemble Bush Derangement Syndrome.
I suspect Obama, consciously or subconsciously, is out to “humble”/humiliate America, and I think that relates to how VERY long he sat in acquiescence while listening to Wright’s virulent “God damn America” tirades. The Wright connection alone should have sunk his candidacy; the fact it did not is very seriously disturbing, not because of Obama, but because of how many voters were foolish and irresponsible enough to overlook it.
And by the way, just as nobody is entitled or has the right to forgive offenses suffered by me or mine in my name without my consent, nobody is entitled or has the right to apologize for anything to anyone in my name without my consent. Doing so is not only meaningless, it’s fraudulent.
Asombra, can you provide a link with a quote showing the President’s apology in Japan?
I was speaking of apologizing in general, anywhere, to anyone, for anything. I was not referring to Japan in particular.
jsb –
Firstm he did not include the two cities in Japan that we bombed to end the war in the PTO, saving millions of lives on both sides:
http://tinyurl.com/yzlunzt
However, I think any intentions he had of offering the regrets for the bombings was trumped by a Japanese reporter:
http://tinyurl.com/ylq92po
In his bumbling to answer the question he pretty much squirmed away from an obvious apology, planned or not.
As to “BDS” … Please, do you REALLY want to go there? Because I’ll start right smack in Afghanistan where your O-hole isn’t even voting ‘present’. You see, he figures he only ran as POTUS in order to ‘change’ this country. To hell with the CiC part of the job. If anyone is “deranged” here it’s Barry.
jsb,
The difference between Bush derangement syndrome and this is that Bush was hated for the wrong reasons by the left and for things that didn’t exist.
With Obama every day he gives us so many reasons to be disappointed or angry. It is now impossible to think that Obama does not have an agenda of bringing this country “down to size”.
The one thing you could always depend on with former presidents, no matter how you disagreed with them, is that they loved this country or at least gave the impression that they did. When Obama uses a platitude about the greatness of this country, it falls flat because he spends so much of his time denigrating the U.S.
jbs
PS
The “bow” to an emperor of Japan pretty much covered an apology … for me, anyway. I’m certain WWII PTO vets saw it that way too, especially those that had been tortured in Japanese prisons, survived being eaten alive on Pacific islands by Japanese soldiers, or being marched to death either through starvation, or into pits-doused-with-gasoline-and-set-on-fire … I could go on, but I’m thinking you didn’t have such thoughts about a ‘bow’. Oh, and for some reason when he bent deeply at his waist to the man the city of Nanking popped into my mind.
Did you know Japanese history books pretty much forbid THAT chapter of their history?
No “bow’ is deserved.
Whoa, first of all, DrillANWR, I’m not an Obama supporter. I voted for McCain, Bush, Bush, Dole, Bush, Bush, Reagan. I speak of Bush Derangement Syndrome to point out that the right is going overboard nitpicking when there is plenty of substantive issues with which to criticize the President. Plenty.
If you’re going to bring up atrocities that occured when Akihito was 8 years old, then perhaps Obama shouldn’t even shake his hand, much less bow. Perhaps we shouldn’t have saved the Emporer from prosecution who WAS responsible for war crimes. Perhaps we should tell Japan to take back their 5 billion dollar Afghan assistance package to help us fight the war on terror. Perhaps we should just ask them to send their civilian teams home from Afghanistan. Perhaps we should tell them to stop their replenishing of maritime interdiction vessels trying to prevent proliferation or their support for Operating Enduring Freedom.
And unfortunately, it seems the current government of Yukio Hatoyama and his defence minister, Toshimi Kitazawa, and cabinet minister Mizuho Fukushima, is primed to do just that, withdraw their ancillary support for our forces. Is that worth debating? …or is only 60-year old history relevant to you? (yes, I’m aware of treatment of our prisoners during the war, pure evil)
Is Japan a reliable ally, that’s what I’m worrying about, not some bow.
You don’t want to consider the insult to remaining WWII vets when they see this man bowing before the Japanese emperor … fine.
However, is only 60 yr old history important to me? Perhaps in the context that this “President” has spent the majority of HIS time on the world’s public stage apologizing for our history … yeah.
Recent ‘history’, he’s the reason allies and NATO countries are flickering on their support in Afghanistan. He’s shown absolutely NO/ZERO leadership in the war.
As to my position that you were/are an Obama supporter, I have a hair-trigger finger these days, so, I will stand corrected.
As to BDS vs ODS I’ll point to Honey’s most excellent summation.
“Recent ‘history’, he’s the reason allies and NATO countries are flickering on their support in Afghanistan. He’s shown absolutely NO/ZERO leadership in the war.”
I agree 100%.
jbs –
I’m just rightfully over sensitive to Afghanistan as I have a relative (Marine Sgt.) who he and his men had been pinned down for 9 days while the Taliban rained endless mortars down on them. No air support due to the “new rules of engagement” … and this just a couple short weeks after we had lost troops on the ground because of a similar situation.
He and his men have recently returned home to Hawaii, but suffered losses while in Afghanistan, one of his best friends included in the KIAs.
A tempest in a teacup.
That may be, Spygirl, but this little “tempest in a teapot” has certainly gotten your attention.
Only because you posted it, Alberto.
I’ll take that as a compliment.