When the Bow Breaks

One of the most fascinating things about Presidential Administrations is how they can turn a small problem for themselves into a larger one, when anyone with sense could have told them to leave well enough alone. 

President Obama bowed to the Saudi King Abdullah when he met him recently.  That was silly lapse in protocol.  Heads of state do not bow to one another, or at least not when they meet as representatives of sovereign states and not as vassal to emperor or Pharaoh.   But this was no big deal (except on Arab TV).  Obama hasn't been President for long, and new Presidents occasionally make mistakes. 

You don't have to be a master of diplomacy to see that the Administration should simply have acknowledged the faux pas.  That would have ended the story.  Instead, Obama's people are claiming that he didn't bow.  He just had to bend over a bit to shake King Abdullah's hands.  Well, here is the video:

That looks like a bow to me.  We all say we want honesty in a President.  We aren't going to get it.  It wasn't just Bush but all Presidents who find it very hard to acknowledge error. 

Update: A.I. in the comments gives us this delightful bit of fun at Dubya's expense. 

I have no idea whether holding the hand of another head of state is a lapse in protocol or not.  But it has other things to recommend against it.  Like this clip. 

Comments

[A.I.]

There's Something About Abdullah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjtfaLtLT7s

[Fred]

It's really pathetic the White House is trying to spin this as a non-bow... like Groucho Marx said "Who you gonna believe? Me? Or your own two eyes?". There are some great "bow" bumper stickers now up at http://www.UpYoursObama.com

[KB]

A.I.:

Thanks for the hilarious clip. As you see, I have included it in the post.

Fred:

Obama's bow was obviously a bow, and the Administration is being dishonest to insist otherwise. But not pathetic. This is very typical of Administrations, and I would be very surprised if one could not find examples of petty lies like this in the Bush record. The amazing thing is how transparent this is, and how obvious it is that they should have just come clean. Why could they not do that?