Posted on 11/14/2009 7:10:22 PM PST by RobinMasters
Ping.
I think this has more to do with how inexperienced his administration is. I’d like to know who is head of his protocol team...seems they keep screwing up whenever possible.
The President of the United States bows to no one.
remember when those 3 criminals from krypton landed on earth, came to the oval office and demanded the president kneel before him? and he did. and the dude was like, no leader this important would ever kneel so readily upon demand, or something like that. yeah, that was back when even hollywood expected the president wouldn’t show weakness like that...
Well, they can’t get anything else right either.
His team has been assembled for ideology not expertise.
He has no executive experience and the people with him are ignorant. He has chosen his staff unwisely. Just as so many Americans chose unwisely when they elected him.
” Unlike just about everyone who comes into the Emperor’s presence, Obama obviously received no instruction on Imperial etiquette.”
He probably did but as is his style he wants to embarrass everyone in the world. Not just himself.
Rumsfeld would call this an unknown unknown. Obama didn’t know that he didn’t know proper Japanese bowing protocol.
The bow in Japan is not , contrary to Western conventional thought, a gesture of submission. According to Japanese tradition, the human body has three zones . Heaven ( from the shoulders up) Man (from Shoulders to hip)and Earth ( from the hips down.) When one bows in Japan, one offers the highest of the body in respect, the heaven aspect. Obama is indeed as you say, prostrating himself, and Akihito Samma, is not bowing even a little, either because he i s surprised, or because he does not respect Obama.The real key is the empress, who is not bowing even a little.
They do not respect Obama enough to bow even a little.This is done with feeling in Japan, and is spontaneous.It is a thing involving a type of perception very different to Westernern cultural ettiquette. A genuine bow can actually be felt in the heart. And Akihito knows this bow is all show.No heart. That is likely why he does not return Obamas bow, even a little.Nor does the Empress. Obama , intent on being the skillful inter cultural president, shows here that he knows nothing of Japanese culture.Before one bows there is a brief glance at the eyes of the person to whom one bows, a spark. This is what Obama is missing, or they both would be bowing back.
Secondly, Obama should have bowed before he shook hands, in the proper way, with his hands on his upper thigh, and he should not have bowed so deeply, because he is not a Japanese subject... a slow respectful bow of 45 to 50 degrees would have been required in his case, if Obama knew the correct protocol, which he obviously does not. So it is a false submissive bow of a man who has little honor in the way of Japanese thinking. A man who wants something. A man not to be trusted.
Obama did not fool the Imperial couple even one little bit, and they are strained to remain polite, humoring Obama as it were. Patronizing conduct gets one no where fast in Japan. Generally Japanese folks know a genuine bow from a false one by the way it feels, a form of perception which few Westerners experience, but still some do.
Obama has idiots for protocol officers, or alteratively, he did not listen to what they had to say about it.
Obama would have been much better off simply shaking hands, instead of this empty, false bow, completely off in its lack of genuiness. The bow of a snake.
I predict that Obama will make little progress with his diplomatic agenda in Japan, he will give much, and receive little in return.
Cross thread reference, mega data on the wider strategic implications of this botched “bow”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2386153/posts
I MISS Rummey.
I always picture some under 30 campus radical as his head of protocol and they never bother to call ahead for protocols and traditions. They just let him cup his testicles when they play the anthem.

Spose while he was down there he apologized for WWII??
So the bow was wrong PLUS he TOUCHED the Emperor while botching the bow........you stay classy, Bammy.
OK, referring to our resident expert . . . what’s the local scoop on this?
I need to reference this post later.
Face it, BO is bowing to show subserviant status. He doesn’t care that he doesn’t know. He knows that Americans don’t know and he knows this picture will be shown to our enemies who also don’t know.
All they know is that its a sign of weakness.
good gawd - he not only bows, and bows wrong - but he keeps bobbing head to both of them, which is disconcerting to them -
He truly is a bobblehead
I suspect that this bow was to cover up for the first bow to the Saudi. His perpetual campaign can use this as an example to support the idea that the Usurpers bow to the Saudi was just a mere ignorance of protocol. His bow to the Emperor was too extreme to have been sincere.
Methinks he prostrated too much.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.