Okay, so I am just signing in and found this thread.
First, I must ask, what Obama did, the bowing and kissing of the ring (he did kiss the guy’s ring, right?) has NEVER been done before? been done by an American president, or any American official for that matter?
If not, this will just infuriate the American people. This should soon be on Drudge then all over Fox news at best.
How on earth could Obama have been so mistaken? If it was intentional, why on earth would he do it?
This is just the worst....
Since Zero is the representative of the American people, he bowed and kissed for you, also.
I wonder if there is video of Merkle, Brown Sarkozy, etc kissing the ring. Haven’t seen it yet.
Not sure about the ring kissing — someone is in the way. As far as the Bow... No. NEVER. Especially such a deep bow while looking at the ground (bending the head). Lots of comments on this thread regarding protocols and such. The only “bow” that should be made would be a mutual bow (such as when greeting a Japanese diplomat - and then it’s not the same - the eyes remain up, and the bow is equal — kind of like we’re taught in Martial Arts classes before sparring).
This wasn’t some “faux pas”. Common sense tells us that if all of US know this was WAY wrong, then the PRES_ENT has NO EXCUSE... Other possible explanation brought up in the thread — the Saudi Emir is the “Keeper of the Mosques” (kind of like the “Islamic Pope”, if you will). None of the possible explanations are good, and almost all of the possible explanations are incredibly bad.
Check out the video if you haven’t seen it yet... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S60U-hl35Gw