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Video : 46 handshakes, one bow
Hot Air ^ | November 13, 2009 | ED MORRISSEY

Posted on 11/15/2009 5:24:13 PM PST by RobinMasters

It didn’t take too long for the Left to defend Barack Obama’s bow to Emperor Akihito yesterday by claiming that the President was merely showing cultural sensitivity to the Japanese emperor by deeply bowing. There’s a couple of problems with that argument. First, American Presidents do not bow to monarchs, or at least they didn’t through the first 43 Presidents and the 220 years they served as the US head of state. Perhaps a few of them might have done so out of cultural sensitivity when traveling to foreign nations as private citizens, either before or after their terms in office, but not when they represented the United States of America. Even the New York Times knew better than that in 1994.

For those arguing that such a policy merely propagates American arrogance and that Obama wants to “change perceptions,” this video by the UConn College Republicans points out the second problem. Heads of state do not bow and show obeisance to one another, regardless of whether either one is an American President. The UConn group reviews 47 different greetings to Emperor Akihito and various heads of state, including a few from fellow Pacific Rim countries with similar cultural sensitivities, and doesn’t find a bow among them:

(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Japan; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: akihito; bhoasia; bhovisit; bow
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To: AmericanInTokyo; potlatch; devolve; ntnychik; Grampa Dave; BOBTHENAILER

21 posted on 11/16/2009 1:28:03 AM PST by PhilDragoo (Hussein: Islamo-Commie from Kenya)
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To: cliniclinical

Thanks, but another Freeper created it.


22 posted on 11/16/2009 4:31:23 AM PST by Lizavetta
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23 posted on 11/16/2009 8:25:48 AM PST by devolve ( . "I would caution you against jumping to conclusions!" - Barack Hasan Osama Junior - mmm mmm mmm)
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To: RobinMasters

24 posted on 11/16/2009 8:28:22 AM PST by paulycy (Demand Constitutionality.)
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To: Ghost of Philip Marlowe

Typical crap coming from liberals. Americans who go to foreign countries and don’t speak the language fluently are automatically labeled “ugly Americans,” but illegal immigrants who slip into America and demand that everything be done in Spanish are just courageous and oppressed and noble and all that stuff.

Leftists have made hypocrisy into an art. They’re not misguided, they’re evil.


25 posted on 11/16/2009 11:26:06 AM PST by JillValentine (Anyone who still has that stupid 'Coexist' bumper sticker is spitting on the dead at Ft. Hood.)
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