blogs.abcnews.com — An old friend, an academic with expertise about the Japanese Empire, and in general a supporter of President Obama sends me the following note, relating to photographs of President Obama bowing to Emperor Akihito of Japan. "This picture shows two things," my friend writes."1) The 'right' is wrong about Obama's bow."2) The 'left' is wrong...
Nov 16, 2009 View in Crawl 4
temlakosNov 16, 2009
In other words, Obama blew the protocol--more evidence of his inexperience, and the incompetence of his staff.I thought about that today--Japanese men always bow to one another, but not as low as Obama did. Seems to me that the Emperor might have reciprocated, however. Then again, the Emperor never had a foreign visitor bow to him before. Bottom line: if you don't know the protocol, don't try to fake it, as Obama must have done.
nmessickNov 16, 2009
Anyone who things the government getting involved in healthcare is a good idea needs to look no furhter for medicare to see why its a piss poor idea. Why aren't we fixing the real problem (the underlying cost of care) rather than just masking the costs in bigger and bigger government.
glynthNov 16, 2009
The "Right AND Left are wrong" thing seems to be either a misreading of the Right or an attempt at diplomatically telling the Left that they're wrong. The Right's "error?" Saying this is "unprecedented," something I haven't argued or even seen much of (or perhaps any... until I saw the comment of I-didn't-read-the-article Temlakos above*). The Left's? Their entire main point: That the bow was a sign of respect. Meanwhile, the truth completely matches the Right's main point: Obama's bow is a sign of weakness.* Sorry, Tem. I don't know you, you may be a good guy... but it really is a bit dense to say "the Emperor never had a foreign visitor bow to him before." Your other points are pretty valid.
atarioNov 17, 2009
Imagine that, someone who doesn't bow in his daily life at all gets the physical execution of a highly calculated Japanese bow wrong. What an idiot, huh?<eyeroll />
ShovelbabyNov 17, 2009
I have heard that businessmen and dignitaries who commonly travel to foreign countries go to great lengths to prepare for the what is acceptable in the various cultures that they are visiting because silly mistakes can be taken as a grave insult. One would think that the president of the US would have advisers who would prepare him for these kinds of basic things like how to properly greet other leaders.