Bow my eye... Obama and the people around him are all leaning in

I think the president either dropped something or was sneezing.. the people around him are almost reaching for the President..


Of all the tempests in teapots, this has got to be one of the sillier ones we have had around here

:wtf:

flamebait threads. Give one a good idea with whom they're dealing, and all that...

explanation for the pics -- such as the one in the OP -- and I wanted to have a response for the freeps in my extended family.

That's when I found out there are tons of pro-bowing DUers out there. Funny, because Dems hated it when Nancy curtsyed to the Queen.

I'm talking about the snide ones. They're like pornography. You know it when you see it.

thought that just asking the question was terrible -- and then by the large group who apparently thinks Obama SHOULD bow to other heads of state.

was another explanation out there, and I was hoping there was.

Did they sleep through the history lesson about that little old war that the French helped us with, to get the royalty off our back and out of our government? There were a number of people arguing that Mrs. O should have curtsied, like a good little British subject, to Queenie E2 as well.

I got a kick out of the Queen putting an arm around her after that imbroglio. And the Missus returning the favor! Followed by more outrage (Ewww, she TOUCHED the QUEEEEEEEN, No One May TOUCH the QUEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!)...until the Palace spokesperson pointed out that Queenie initiated the gesture!

It's all so silly. Obama might need a slightly more anal-retentive protocol officer, or maybe what he needs to do, if he likes the one he has, is to send him or her over to State to get some additional training. They've got that crap down over there, they have a career staff who know what they are doing, and they know how to write a schedule down to the minute (to include pee breaks...really) and include entries like

"2104: POTUS stands up, picks up his glass, raises it, and offers toast (see attached card for toast verbiage). POTUS must touch glass to lips after toast. Four toasts will follow by (list of names). POTUS will touch glass to lips after each toast. POTUS returns glass to table and takes seat."

Nothing is ever left to chance if these things are properly prepared. Part of the reason that Powell fit into that SECSTATE job so quickly is because, as a four star, he was accustomed to having his own private protocol staff, that did that sort of thing for him, to ensure he always looked cool and at ease, and never made a misstep. If you just read the sched in the car on the way, and kept a copy close by with an aide, you'd never screw up!

For his first POTUS foray abroad, I think he and the Missus have done very well.

And I agree that it's the job of the protocol people to assist Obama with these things.

The freepers are having a field day calling Obama an "amateur President." Well, that's what we're SUPPOSED to have. And aren't they the ones always screaming about how we need people outside the beltway? But any President needs good protocol advice. These "rules" aren't instinctive, but they do grease the wheels. Or gum them up, unfortunately.

State dinners that end before the sun goes down, and damned few of them, gaffes a plenty (we know Merkel feels safer with him gone), unable to find the door even after he was briefed on which way to go, toasting people with water (means you wish them dead/under the sea in Navy tradition--if you don't want booze, use lemonade, orange juice, anything! But not water!), winking at the Queen during her last state visit, and then saying that she had last visited in 1776 (which would make her quite old--a couple of hundred years old and then some)....the hits just keep on coming!

That's off the top of my head--if I did a little thinking on the subject, I could come up with many more.

in Russia, and to fish out his hot, wet gum with his pudgy little fingers and hand it to someone. That had people heading for the barf bags, practically, very hot under the collar, with multiple stories running there about how gross the "Leader of the Free World" was. They were not impressed.

He also landed his helicopter, in a garden at Windsor Palace once, and chewed up the landscape. Here's what DU'er Johnny Canuck said at the time:

Queen Liz was "royally" pissed off at Chimp

on his last sleep over at Windsor Castle. IIRC, the downwash from the presidential chopper destroyed the royal rose bushes in her garden.....

Cotton Bear added:

The roses were planted by the Queen Mother. The Queen was very upset by the destruction.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3350884#3350895

As you know, there were far, FAR more absurd gaffs and wretched, clumsy, arrogant mistakes & blunders than this, too, from the very first.

you scoffed at it.

Which you still seem to be doing so obviously you are hell bent on seeing something that is not there.

And for the response to the freeps in your family: tell them they are delusion if they think our President is bowing.

Add to that some pictures of Shrubbie kissing and walking hand in hand with the Saudi prince he had over at the White House. That should shut them up until they get their next list of paranoid rants from Limbaugh and Beck!!

me for someone else.

hold hands and slip the tongue... do these fek's think at all, have they completely forgotten the last 8 yrs? Did they forget Bush skipping along the bluebonnets with the saudi prince and giving him a lip lock? and they complain about a tip of the head? <smacks forehead>

regarding King Abdullah which may have scared them to death, trapped in mortal fear and trembling.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_Qvti2ehEQ8k/R7P35h5HeeI/AAAAAAAABOQ/r5fJ4iLPUIA/s400/13_kiss_bush-arab_1302_430xx.jpg http://z.about.com.nyud.net:8090/d/politicalhumor/1/0/S/c/bush_abdullah_crawford.jpg

I think he may have "accidentally" dropped a hankie at this most opportune time so he could genuflect when picking it up, knowing it would be the last nail in the Republican sanity coffin. Hahaha!

spasms.

He does have a bad cold and word has it you will go to hell if you give a King germs. Looking down was a smart move by Obama.

That's what the chimp did, leading the king around like lovers through the daisies.

They never criticized Bush when he did that, but an apparent bow is big news?

His Spigot Jawboning pal.

They had an ENTIRELY different relationship. They were "friendly" if not friends. I don't think Obama's met too many members of the Saudi Royal Family. He might know Bandar--everyone does. That portion of the CP's trip was also an INFORMAL visit to Bush's HOME--not a state visit with all the bells and whistles.

One of CP's relatives, the former ambassador to the US, was Prince Bandar, who went home to be the equivalent of SECSTATE over in SA.

Prince Bandar's nickname? Bandar Bush. He spent a lot of time at the ranch. And at the White House.

See, they're all VERY tight, those Bushes, with the House of Saud. How else do you think they managed to get the Bin Ladin family out of the USA so quickly when nothing was flying? Quid pro quo, my friend, quid pro quo!



Bandar and Paw



Bandar, Dick and George



George and Bandar at the ranch

The Chimp and Bandar shared cigars on the portico of the White House.

If President Obama isn't 100% perfect, the MSM jumps all over him, but they ignore Bush and his coziness with the Saudis and bin Ladens.

or any rational, sane person for that matter, could watch that video and come away thinking the President was bowing.

It is clear from the gaze, body language and movements of everyone standing around that either the President or someone else dropped something and he went to pick it up.

All of this other nonsense, such as "looks like a bow to me" is :crazy:

This is what was important at the G20 - a far more substantial package for the developing world than had been expected beforehand.

Of the $250 billion (£170bn) in 'Special Drawing Rights' - essentially short-term debt - $19 billion of that is earmarked for the poorest, least developing countries.

The sale of International Monetary Fund (IMF) gold will also make credit available many times in excess of the capital sum itself, once it goes through the system.

The measure that could make the most difference in the short term for the poorest countries is availability of $250bn of trade credit. That figure too is larger than was anticipated before the summit. It will enable goods currently rotting on the quaysides of Africa to move again. That was the change that the poorest countries were pushing most.

Where was the coverage of this?

And I'm only half kidding with that subject line.

Gee, I'm surprised that they didn't suggest he was throwin' dice. That's what it looks like to me...."Come on, come on....baby needs a new pair-a shoes!!!!"

I've lived in "bowing" countries. I understand "bowing" protocol. That's not "bowing."

Further, bowing in Saudi Arabia is outlawed because folks are only supposed to bow to Allah--it's in the Quran. One more time--bowing is PROSCRIBED/FORBIDDEN/HA'ARAM in Saudi Arabia.

So is hand kissing of the monarch; the CP said that's for Momma and Poppa, not for every senior asshole that toddles by.

So perhaps we can put this bullshit to rest, what say everyone?

Here's the link to shut everyone up--please, people, copy and paste this fucker far and wide, and let's be done with this bullshit, OK?

http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1457667.htm

LOL!

Thank you for the link; very interesting "policy" the Saudis have regarding who kisses whose what.

:shrug:

... without having been there personally to witness it and without the parties being in full view.

Of course that explains why the fr**pers can positively say what occurred.

and at the center of the circle, around where Barack Obama's hand is, and perhaps also King Abdullah's hand. It's conceivable Abdullah was even making a "fist bump" as a greeting, which would explain the smiles on some of the faces.

Barack Obama of course would NEVER kiss people's hands. It wouldn't fit ANY of his previously observed behavior. That's just odd! Nor would he bow.

If anyone would have bowed anywhere, it would have been meeting Queen Elizabeth, but it was shown clearly the Obamas most certainly didn't go through ANY of that several days ago.

Someone's really desperate to kick up some silliness any way he/she can work it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WlqW6UCeaY&feature=related

President Obama took the Saudi King's extended hand and made a quick bow from the waist.

What people fail to realize is the fact that respect for elders is very important in Saudi culture. Even members of the royal family revere those who have reached an advanced age. King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud is 85 years old.

Obama was showing respect, not fealty.

His ass wouldn't be sticking out like that.

And I am sure his protocol officer would have advised him that the crown prince issued a law four years ago that prohibits hand kissing, and in executing that law, reminded his subjects that the faithful ONLY BOW TO ALLAH.

See the "most important post in this thread" just upthread.

?

I didn't say he kissed the King's hand. The King extended his hand and Obama took it, quickly bending at the waist. Maybe it's not a bow, but It most definitely was an intended greeting and show of respect. You would know that if you watched the video.

It didn't look like a "bow" to me at all. Abdallah holds his hand up high, then down low, Obama reaches forward to grab it and shake. Because Abdallah moved his hand down, as Obama is reaching, Obama had to lean forward and down to get it. He was standing too far away when he started the motion.

I hate these dickheads as a source, because their title is a bloviating falsehood, but they've got RAI footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed0Qp2vxkSQ

You do know how these rightwing shits will paint this, don't you? Who's the defender of the Holy Places? Who's the guardian of Makkah and Madina? Basically, who's the Top Dog in the Sunni Muslim world and the one who owns the sites where all Muslims perform the Hajj?

The guy our man was greeting.

The link I offered elsewhere in this thread remains instructive as a push-back.

FWIW, when you "bow" in Islam (and you bow only to Allah), it is full bore prostration, head to the ground, not something that looks like a cover for a move to get yer underwear outta yer butt or something!

Let the wingnuts get out their paintboxes. This petty bullshit is what's keeping them mired in muck. Our President is a winner and the world loves him. The more the haters fling poo, the more it flies back in their faces.

If only the faithful then what does it say that Obama bowed to the Saudi King (the one who decreed the new law)?

Does that mean he's not a faithful Muslin?! That he doesn't follow the King's laws?

Here is a YouTube video of what the reactionary right is already pushing: comparing Obama's bows (the one for Elizabeth and the one for Abdulluh).

No word yet on what this breech of protocol means for their deeply-held belief that Obama is a mooslim.

people see what they want to see. If they are detractors looking for something - anything - with which to criticize Obama, they'll do so. Even if it means interpreting a photo to be something it isn't.

the body language of those around him, as well as President Obama's body position, makes it clear something was dropped or, as you surmise, possibly a sneeze.

I find the hoop-la over this to be ludicrous but, sadly, not unexpected, not only by the freepers but by the naysayers here on DU.

Edited to correct spelling error.