April 9, 2009

"It wasn't a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he's taller than King Abdullah."

That is so blatantly wrong it's embarrassing. But, to be fair, it's some Obama aide speaking only anonymously, not an official statement from the White House.

35 comments:

Hoosier Daddy said...

Linky no worky.

traditionalguy said...

That is sad. Pres.Obama needs to forget his goofs and move on, but never, never pretend we cannot see them, or tell us we must erase our minds and be mesmerized by his pretend version. This isn't Cuba Mr. Obama.

Ann Althouse said...

Link fixed. Sorry.

Anonymous said...

We've always been at war with Eastasia...

The Dude said...

He didn't bow, the king told him his shoe was untied and he bent over to check. The king was then "Ahhhhh, gotcha, you weak-minded empty suit!"

You have to be hazed to get into the fraternity.

Meade said...

He wasn't bowing. He was doubling over in laughter at the ridiculous costume that so-called king was wearing to the G-20 meeting.

The Drill SGT said...

This story is embarassing on 3 levels.

1. the bow itself

2. the brazen attempts by the WH to lie theirway out of the problem.

3. the fact that the MSM ent out oftheir way to whstle past ths story ignoring it completely.

Great quote fro the NYT: But the “thou need not bow” commandment from the State Department’s protocol office maintained a constancy of more than 200 years. Administration officials scurried to insist that the eager-to-please President had not really done the unthinkable.

Only problem is that this was a 1994 story about Clinton, the Obama bow? not news to the NYT.

"all the news that fits our agenda" is their motto now.

jayne_cobb said...

This aide had better hope they never find out who he is as up until now the media was successfully ignoring this story.

Hoosier Daddy said...

I'm not sure what the fuss is about. Considering he went great lengths to kiss the ass of the Islamic world on his worldwide love tour, bowing to the King of the Wahhabist sect would be par for the course.

The Drill SGT said...

Like e said on the other entry:

AllenS said...
It wasn't a bow, he naturally bends easily at the waist because he has no spine.

Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

He didn't bow, he just bent over...I guess we missed the...er...what's that trendy, always out of context and overused word? Oh, yes, nuance, of the act.

Have a great day everyone!

Big Mike said...

Until this point I was prepared to say (and have indeed said, including in comments to other posts on this very blog) that he only started to bow and then caught himself. Now I'm not so sure.

It's always the coverup that gets you, isn't it?

SteveR said...

The bow was stupid, making up the lame excuse is insulting.

Peter V. Bella said...

Does the G pay unemplyment insurance? That aide, if he is discovered may be a new statistic.

Tom Tucker said...

Take your pick:

David Letterman: Hey Paul, is that a Bow, or not a Bow?

Howie Mandel: It's time to play, Bow, or No Bow!!!!

The real question is, how many unbelievably stupid/dense things does Obama have to do before he is considered as stupid as GWB, or RR? I guess they might say that he is is ALMOST as smart as John Kerry or Al Gore, that's about as much as I can hope for...

Anonymous said...

The question is not what Mr. Obama is doing with this gesture, with his first interview as President, or with his speech to Turkey. He is attempting to quell the anger towards the west of the world's Islamists through a series of words and symbolic moves. The question is... does he believe what he is saying and doing?

Unknown said...

Obama is tall. Certainly, then, he has had occasion to shake hands with other people who are significantly shorter than him.

If he wasn't bowing here, then there should be footage of him
not-bowing in a similar fashion when greeting other not-so-tall people, perhaps even at that same event.

Peter V. Bella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Peter V. Bella said...

OTOH, it may not have been a bow. Obama, in a sign of reverence to a tyrannical foreign potentate, may have been bending over to tell the rest of the world, including the US to kiss his ass. :)

Yeah, yeah, Jeremy, no real American bah, blah, blah...

Unknown said...

Obama did not bow to the Anglican queen. He bowed to the Sunni king.

An Obama aide 'anonymously' states that Obama didn't actually bow when we know he actually did.

The big dying media are ignoring the matter.

Obama really did bow to the king of Saudi Arabia - the question is why?

Stupid gaffe or is there more to it than that?

ricpic said...

He is attempting to quell the anger towards the west of the world's Islamists...

On April 15th Zero is going to here from the American street. Think the Kenyan will attempt to quell Americans' anger?

From Inwood said...

Obama

When I speak, "Trust but don't verify".

Some wag on another site suggested that The One was looking at his Maxwell Smart Shoe Teleprompter.

Haven't seen any Monica allusions so far, anyway.

DaLawGiver said...

Or as Michael would say,

"Give him a break, he's only been in office for 70 plus days!"

BJM said...

Who you gonna believe an anonymous WH aide or your lyin' eyes?

Sarah from VA said...

Aand it's compounded today by the White House press briefing. Gibbs first confirmed the two-handed handshake line. When called on it by a reporter who saw the video, he remained steadfast that it was not a bow, and then said, "Didn't this happen, like, last week?" Because clearly things that happened more than a couple days ago can't be an issue to anybody.

Jeremy said...

If you hadn't seen a picture, this explanation could make sense if you assume that the king was the size of a Keebler Elf. Alas.

-The Other Jeremy

Kansas City said...

Gibbs always comes across terrible in my view. He is a arrogant, argumentative and often a smart aleck. He seems to say gibberish much of the time. He assumes the posture of a campaign press aid, rather than the press secretary of the president of the United States. He lies with abandon, such as here. It is amazing how low our government officials have sunk.

blake said...

Of course it was a bow.

I think it signifies nothing except that these guys all think they're so freaking smart, they don't need to study and prep for these things.

They should make a Barack Barbie that says, "Diplomacy is haaaard!"

Peter V. Bella said...

Looking at that picture, I have only one question; WWTS?








What would Titus say?

Der Hahn said...

IIRC the original line of BS was that Abdullah was seated when His O'ness (maybe I should say his o'ness) greeted him, making it plausible that obama had to reach down. The video clearly shows obama walking up to a standing Abdullah and bending at the waist until his chest is parallel to the floor. It's not surprising somebody had to come up with another fib.

davod said...

The Hand, look at the hand in this picture.

If you look at the video you might also want to look at the people around the king when Obama did what he did.

davod said...

PS:

If we had a longer video we could see how the other "equal amomg equals" greeted the king. If indeed they bothered.

Meade said...

I've watched that video several times but I still don't believe it.

Remember last year at the Ground Zero memorial service? Stiff old McCain was able to bow his crippled up torso down and gently lay his flower on the commemorative marker. Sure he's old and crippled, but McCain is short.

Obama wasn't able to bend his torso. Apparently, he's just too tall to bow.

davod said...

meade:

click on the link at my 3:00 pm post. It contains a still from the video.

Charles said...

A poster on a message board I frequent had a great line:

"We finally get a brother in the White House and he's STILL bowing to the white man."

Too bad he couldn't resist the impulse to grovel before a despot.