Flashback : NYT blasts Clinton for … almost bowing to Akihito

Hot Air ^ | November 13, 2009 | ED MORRISSEY

[RobinMasters]

Both Allahpundit and I referenced this blast from the past at the time Barack Obama bowed to Abdullah earlier this year. It’s worth posting again, not just because Obama pulled another boneheaded protocol violation and bowed to an emperor, but in this case bowed to the same emperor with whom Bill Clinton almost committed the same protocol violation. Douglas Jehr, in a 1994 New York Times report, made it clear that had Clinton actually executed a full bow, it would have destroyed a precedent dating to the founding of the Republic:

[RobinMasters]

Ping.

[cruise_missile]

I guess they don’t want to be called racists.

-Captain Obvious

[donna]

I call a fake!

Obama only did this to cover for his real bow.

[Paratrooper]

I concur...Obama has been looking for opportunity to bow again so to cover his bow to the Saudi King.

[motoman]

“I call a fake!

Obama only did this to cover for his real bow.”

I 100% agree.

He is a weak and deceptive individual. You just know in your gut that he made a more pronounced and deeper bow to this emperor only as a means to deflect the blowback he received for “bowing to Islam”.

Funny how morally bankrupt people try to water down their transgressions by performing even greater ones.

(”Gee, let’s see here now...If I bow to the emperor of Japan, then my detractors cannot say that my bow to the Saudi King was any more exclusive...yeah, that’s it..”)

[Zhang Fei]

Clinton was too conservative for the Times. The NYT spent both of Clinton’s terms whaling at him because it perceived him as not liberal enough. Ogabe, on the other hand, is a full-fledged red rather than a mere pinko, so they’re siding with him, whatever he does.

[This_far]

Obama only did this to cover for his real bow.

At this point, if Clinton said that he tripped on the rug, I'd darn well allow him the excuse.

[Jeff Chandler]

This becomes ironic when one considers how the Japanese view black people.

[Thirteen]

With the way the dumb masses on the left are willing to overlook, dismiss and ultimately buy into everything Obama does, I have a great marketing idea with huge profit potential. (pictured below)! Investors welcome.

[DavidAccord]

Obama to Emperor of Japan: “May I shine your shoes, Sir?”

[jonno]

Obama only did this to cover for his real bow.

My thoughts too...

[paulycy]

It could be that zer0 did this to cover his own saudi bow but it could also be that The One truly believes that by personally showing submission to foreign powers he thinks that it actually reflects poorly on the United States. In fact it is so out of ordinary character and protocol that it is him personally that looks like a total ignorant, clueless and arrogant fool.

It's not taking as much time as it could have for the world, maybe even some of his supporters here in the States, to recognize this poser as the aberrant non-leader that he is.

[justiceseeker93]

Douglas Jehr, in a 1994 New York Times report, made it clear that had Clinton actually executed the full bow, it would have destroyed a precedent dating to the founding of the Republic.

Yes, I would have thought that just about every American citizen would have been told about that tradition as early as elementary school. Yet in today's article on Obama's bow to Akahito, posted on another thread, the Los Angeles Times writer doesn't even mention that O totally flouted the precedent and protocol - not to mention that he disrespected the memories of the hundreds of thousands of American servicemen killed in the Pacific during WWII!

In fact, that "no bowing" protocol should apply to all American citizens, not just presidents.

[Liz]

......"no bowing" protocol should apply to all American citizens, not just presidents.....

Their "subjects" bow to foreign royalty as an expression of fealty, and obeisance, to "the crown."

Since the Revolutionary War, it is an article of the republic, that NO AMERICAN bows to express fealty to a foreign head of state.

If a president of the US does not know how to behave on the world stage, he should stay home.

[stephenjohnbanker]

I think Obama does this just to tweak us. He is every ounce that petty.

[justiceseeker93]

If a president of the US does not know how to behave on the world stage, he should stay home.

My guess is that he really "knows" the precedent and the reason for it, but he deliberately violates it to undermine traditional American standards (just like he deliberately creates chaos in the economy to advance his socialistic domestic agenda).

And it speaks volumes for the logic of the Founding Fathers who put the Natural Born Citizen clause in the Constitution and to the significance of that clause. We are witnessing the spectacle of a "POTUS" who is probably not a Natural Born Citizen and who is disdainful of the way he is should behave toward foreign dignitaries. The Founders probably could have envisioned such a possibility.

[chessplayer]

“made it clear that had Clinton actually executed a full bow, it would have destroyed a precedent dating to the founding of the Republic:”

Thanks to Bammy, the precedent no longer exists.

[okie01]

My guess is that he really "knows" the precedent and the reason for it, but he deliberately violates it to undermine traditional American standards...

Agreed. It's intentional. It is to send a message to the rest of the world: the United States will no longer act as the world's sole super-power and will submit its national interests to the interests of the world at large.

We are weak. And directionless. We have been wrong. And we are inferior.

Pretty profound message...