April 03, 2009
Showing who's boss
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this photo and accompanying video: The American president bowing and scraping before the Saudi king, the unelected leader of a regime that is, by Western standards, a repressive, anti-feminist, monarchical tyranny.
Don't forget that the Obamas had just -- quite properly -- refused to bow and curtsy for Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth. We had a revolution to escape fealty to those who inherit the crown, remember?
Commentray's Abe Greenwald comments:
Barack Obama has literally bowed before King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Here’s the question: Was this unprecedented embarrassment the result of the Obama team’s inexperience, incompetence, or inclination toward American humility on the world stage?
Here’s the answer: Who cares? Whatever the cause, the fallout will be the same.
Among Muslim democrats and human rights advocates, utter dejection that the “leader of the Free World” has offered himself as a “subject” of the Saudi monarch; among Islamists, bliss over America’s seeming prostration before Salafist Islam; among international bad actors, assurance that America poses no threat; and among our allies, depression about the new systemic instability of the most dependable superpower in history.
The Anchoress thinks, after watching the video, that Pres. Obama simply did what came naturally to him when meeting the Guardian of Mecca, but then thought better of it, although a bit too late.
Let me say right off the bat, I have never thought, as apparently many still do, that Barack Obama was a Muslim. Obama said he was a Christian, and - although it is difficult to believe he sat in Jeremiah Wright’s church for 20 years and never heard him utter racist or anti-American sentiments - I tend to take people at their word, until their behavior informs me otherwise.
Such is the case, here. President Obama’s own behavior has me wondering.
I don’t like this video. Spin it any way you like, Obama’s knee is bending, and the head is going very low, almost low enough to kiss a ring, but then Obama’s smooth movements become awkward and stilted, reflecting interrupted momentum - like a batter checking his swing. This looks very much like a man catching himself in mid-bow and suddenly remembering that he should not.
I recall the press making a big stink when President Bush held hands with a Saudi Prince; we were told by all the pundits that it was a “very revealing” gesture, one that “demonstrated” Bush’s fealty to the oil-producers.
I’m quite certain, however, that we’re going to hear Obama’s action - which certainly looks like a checked bow, to me - explained away, with a sniff of disdain. “Actually the president looking for something on the rug,” or “anticipating a step” (which would make no sense, given Abudullah’s height).
Perhaps we’ll be told that Obama “has a head cold” and “was stifling a sneeze” or “was suppressing a cough,” or “is very, very tired, and momentarily betrayed his exhaustion; saving the world is very tiring.”
I think it was a checked bow.
The bow comes at the 00:50 mark. I'm willing to bet that the left will downplay this as meaningless, but Greenwald is right: Such seemingly small gestures will resonate in the Muslim world, to the detriment of American interests.
Not good.
Or, in the favored language of our new administration, double-plus ungood.
Posted by Mike Lief at April 3, 2009 07:41 AM
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